The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has described the Ekiti state governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose as the greatest threat to Nigeria’s democracy in reference to his ceaseless attacks and insults on President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the APC, Fayose is using his devious bad-mouthing and reckless diversionary tactics to take public attention from his many alleged constitutional breaches which will not prevent him from facing justice over his many infractions on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement that it was not surprised by the governor’s antics in his relentless media attacks on the President, noting, however, that false accusations and sophistry would not distract the Federal Government from pursuing its anti-graft agenda and free the country of official impunity.
Olatunbosun said: “Impunity has wreaked havoc in the polity resulting in some cases to crimes against humanity. Fayose as a promoter of impunity is only trying to employ his basket-mouth antics to blackmail the President in his witch-hunting accusation in the media to preempt dispensation of justice in his financial crimes, acts of impunity and crimes against humanity.”
Frowning at Fayose’s new posture as an apostle of the rule of law urging the President to respect the constitution in his anti-corruption crusade, the APC spokesman said that it was ironic that the governor, who “is a serial law breaker, could suddenly turn around to be a self-appointed advocate of the rule of law”.
He added: “It is laughable and an insult on the intelligence of Nigerians for Fayose to accuse President Buhari of persecuting the opposition simply because he wants to recover stolen funds from the nation’s treasury and punish looters.
“Fayose has persecuted members of the opposition in Ekiti State to no end. He runs them out of town as promised by declaring them wanted over trumped-up murder charges.
“He seized monetised vehicles of opposition members in the last administration and recently ejected them from their houses at a government housing estate disregarding their subsisting mortgage agreement with the Housing Corporation, even as no fewer than three opposition members are in prison over Fayose-induced trumped-up charges.”
Olatunbosun added that it was a gratuitous insult to Nigerians for Fayose to accuse Buhari of persecution, saying, however, that Nigerians were not surprised at his tantrums against the President as he did to his own mother even when many PDP governors attested to Buhari’s even-handedness and fairness in the handling of his policies.
He said: “If Fayose can insult his own mother publicly by saying she wore pampers as a result of old age, who else can he not insult? Who can he not blackmail just to get away with his illegalities?
“This is somebody who once led thugs to invade the office of the Chief Judge of the state, beat up his secretary and tore court records and thereafter blackmailed the judge of collecting N200 million bribe to return guilty verdict on him over his perjury case. Nigerians have not forgotten how Fayose beat up and tore the suit of another high court judge because he wanted to stop his eligibility case.
“Fayose, notorious for having the greatest number of alleged criminal cases in courts among Nigerian executives, is a governor who successfully prevented another arm of government, the legislature, from functioning for seven months till its term expired.”
Olatunbosun also accused the governor of running an illegal budget and spending government money without appropriation, explaining that only seven members out of 26 in the Assembly illegally passed his 2015 budget into law just as three of his present commissioners were not known to law as they were not properly screened.
He added: “He stood trial over N1.3 billion poultry project fraud before his controversial re-election as governor that now gives him immunity from trial, which will not last forever.
“He has again embarked on reckless spending of Ekiti State money since he assumed office by not accounting for many funds received from the Federation Account. He still owes last year’s September salary despite collecting the allocation, including indebtedness to pensioners, traditional rulers, workers and subvention to higher institutions.”