The ruling Action Congress of Nigeria
came into power on October 16, 2010 with the declaration of Dr. Kayode
Fayemi as the lawfully elected governor of the state by the Court of
Appeal which was headed by Justice Ayo Salami. The court sacked Mr.
Segun Oni of the PDP after a prolonged legal battle, which lasted
three-and-a-half years. Though Fayemi, who has just spent two years in
office, is yet to declare publicly his second term interest, his party
chiefs including the Speaker and members of the state House of Assembly
have asked him to continue in office after 2014. They have agreed that
the performance of the governor in the past two years is unprecedented
and the best thing to do is to allow him to continue with the job of
developing the state. Based on his acceptance, nobody within the ACN has
declared their intention to contest the ticket against the governor.
However, the PDP, which is the only
vibrant political party among the opposition in the state, has started
the process that will lead to the emergence of its governorship
candidate.
The party seems to have jettisoned its
zoning idea with the coming of politicians who are not from the Ekiti
South Senatorial District into the governorship race. This senatorial
district is yet to produce a governor for the state since 1999 except
when former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Tunji Odeyemi,
from Gbonyin Local Government Area, acted for less than three months
during the rerun governorship poll in 2009.
Some of the governorship aspirants in
the PDP include former Governor Ayo Fayose, former Chairman of SUBEB
during Oni’s administration, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, former Deputy Governor,
Chief Bisi Omoyeni; Senator Ayo Arise and Mr. Femi Bamisile. Although
the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (retd) has
not declared his interest publicly, some of the leaders of the party are
asking him to contest. Olubolade, since he was appointed by President
Goodluck Jonathan as a minister, has been the sole financier of the PDP
in Ekiti State. They are of the opinion that his liberality and
experiences in military and politics will give him an edge over others.
Fayose, who has gone round some
political parties in the state since his removal from office in 2006,
returned to the party which brought him into power. He returned to the
PDP in Sept. 2011 and a year after, he was given a waiver paving the way
for him to contest any political office.
The former governor has since declared
his intention to return to the Government House from where he was
removed based on the allegations of corruption. His supporters and the
supporters of the ACN have since been clashing and the violence being
reintroduced to politics in the state is threatening to plunge the state
into another round of crisis.
An attack was first reported in
Oye-Ekiti when Fayose went to the town to meet with his supporters ahead
of the PDP primaries. Supporters of the ACN and those loyal to Fayose
were said to have engaged one another in a violent clash which left six
persons injured while some vehicles were damaged.
The Director-General of the Ayo Fayose
Campaign Organisation, Mr. Gboyega Oguntuase, while narrating the story
to journalists, said that the PDP was holding a meeting when hoodlums he
claimed to be supporters of the ACN unleashed terror on them. He said
six of their members were injured while four vehicles belonging to them
were vandalised.
Oguntuase said, “They have been laying
siege to us for a long time. But this one in Oye was very violent; six
of our members were injured. If the attacks continue; then they are
inviting the declaration of a state of emergency.” He accused the ruling
party of planning to either kill Fayose or force him to jettison his
ambition. According to him, the ACN considers the former governor as the
only strong candidate hat could challenge them.
But he said that the Commissioner of
Police in the state, Mr. Sotonye Wakama, led other police officers to
Oye, adding that it was their efforts that prevented the crisis from
degenerating.
However, the Director of Publicity of
the ACN in the state, Chief Tai Oguntayo, denied the allegation levelled
against the ruling party. He said the ACN members were known for their
decorum and peace while blaming Fayose for the crisis in Oye. According
to him, the ACN and the PDP members have been co-existing in the town
for a long time without any fight. He alleged that violence was
introduced into the town when Fayose went there to campaign.
Oguntayo said, “The ACN is not known for
violence. Everyone knows that violence trails Mr. (Ayo) Fayose wherever
he goes. Why was it that the violence happened the day he went to
Oye-Ekiti?”
He urged the people of the state to “disregard Fayose’s antics.”
After the clash in Oye, the police
stepped up their vigilance and prevented another clash in Ilawe-Ekiti
although some of the aides of Fayose climed that security agents advised
him against going to Ilawe that day because some hoodlums had laid in
ambush for him. But Oguntuase later told our correspondent on the
telephone that Fayose still went to the town.
Crisis also trailed Fayose’s visit to
Ikere as some youths were said to have blocked the road leading to the
town to prevent the former governor from campaigning there.
Fayose’s driver told journalists on the
telephone that he was attacked at Ilupeju on his way back from Abuja
where he had taken his boss to. The driver said that he was returning to
Afao-Ekiti when the hoodlums attacked him and started asking him for
Fayose’s whereabouts. He claimed that he was thoroughly beaten but they
let him go when they discovered that his boss was not in the vehicle.
Fayose, in an interview with Sunday
PUNCH, said that he had been under constant attacks from the ACN, which
he helped during the rerun governorship poll since he declared his
intention to contest against Fayemi. Although he said that he would not
speak against Fayemi, he blamed his (Fayemi) party for these attacks.
He said, “Since my party gave me a
clearance, the ACN has continually waylaid me with their touts, because
they know I’m their headache. They say I’m not popular, I agree. I lost a
senatorial election, I agree. I was impeached, I agree. But they should
stop attacking me.”
The Chairman of the ACN in Ekiti State,
Chief Jide Awe, described Fayose’s allegations as lies and an attempt by
the former governor to draw attention to himself and to blackmail the
ruling party. He explained that Fayose’s return to the PDP had further
worsened the crisis within the ranks of the opposition party. The ACN
chairman said that there was no way a political party would be enmeshed
in crisis of that magnitude and a faction would be organising rallies
and others would watch it to go on unmolested. He exonerated the ACN
from the attacks on Fayose while he accused the former governor of
perpetrating the violence.
Awe said, “The Action Congress of
Nigeria knows nothing about the attacks on Fayose. The ACN is the party
in power and we cannot be hurting the people we govern. Before Fayose’s
entry, Ekiti was one of the most peaceful states in the country. When he
was removed as governor, we started living peacefully. Now that he has
entered again, violence is erupting. We are calling on the police and
other security agencies to check him. We have written to them on this.”
The recent eruption of political
violence in the state has made many to believe that the state is
gradually reverting to the era of holocaust, which claimed the lives of
promising indigenes of the state including a World Bank Consultant, Dr.
Ayo Daramola; Tunde Omojola; Kehinde Fasuba and others. Political
observers in the state are of the opinion that the breeding violence
needs to be promptly nipped in the bud to stop the descent of the state
into a state of anomie.
No comments:
Post a Comment