Armed policemen and soldiers took over
strategic places in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital on Tuesday as the
anti-impeachment protests by the Peoples Democratic Party members
entered the second day.
The mayhem which also took place in
Igede, Itawure, Efon Alaaye, Iworoko, Aisegba, Ikere, Ise, Ogotun and
Igbemo, led to the death of one person, accidents and the closure of
banks.
Nineteen All Progressives Congress
members of the state House of Assembly had served an impeachment notice
on Governor Ayodele Fayose, citing eight impeachable offences,
including impunity, violence, stalking and other constitutional
breaches, against him.
The protesters, who converged on
Ajilosun, Ijigbo, the Secretariat Road, Okesa, Ojumose and old garage as
early as 6.30am, moved round the city , thereby hindering movements
for several hours.
While some of them made bonfires on the
streets, others used broken bottles, wooden chairs and tables to block
the highways that lead to and out of the city.
The development forced private and
commercial bus drivers from other parts of the country who pass through
the state capital to park until the chaos subsided.
Their passengers panicked as the
demonstrators drove round the streets in commercial buses chanting
solidarity songs. They were watched by the heavily-armed soldiers and
policemen.
The security operatives were mostly seen in areas such as the Fajuyi Roundabout, the Governor’s Office Road and the NTA Road where the protesters used luxury buses, tyres and chairs to block them.
But at the Secretariat Road, a Toyota
Hilux van marked AA 363 YEK, conveying some gun-wielding protesters to
the assembly premises ran into a police patrol vehicle, a development
that led to the arrest of three of them (protesters).
Among the worst affected by the chaos
were Senior Secondary School 3 pupils presently sitting for the West
African Senior School Certificate Examinations outside the capital city
who were turned back by the demonstrators.
Many civil servants and traders, who had reported at their places of work and business had to return home in fear.
In spite of the violence, some bank
customers in the city were seen using the Automated Teller Machines
while those without ATM cards milled round the front of the banks
located on the Bank Road, New Garage and Adebayo Road.
An employee of one of the banks told The PUNCH that they took precautionary measures against the current situation in the state.
In Igede, a barricade on the Igede-Iyin-Ado Road led to accidents. The PUNCH correspondent in the state was involved in one of them.
Our correspondent, who was in the
community in the heat of the protest rammed his car into another whose
driver suddenly applied the brakes on seeing the barricade. Although
the two cars were badly damaged, the occupants escaped unhurt.
In Efon Alaaye in Efon Local Government
Area, a man identified as Modupe Olaiya, was shot dead as the
anti-Fayose impeachment demonstrators took to the streets following
rumours that the 19 APC members were on their way to to the town.
The PUNCH however gathered
that the lawmakers’ convoy was blocked by some youths and soldiers at
Itawure, a town between Ekiti and Osun states.
An eyewitness said that Olaiya was shot
in the commotion that ensued when the protesters challenged the
lawmakers and asked them to return to Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
According to him, the victim sustained
injury from shots fired to scare away the protesters, who took over the
Ado-Itawure-Ilesa Road.
But the Assembly Speaker, Adewale Omirin, described as “untrue,” reports that the convoy of the lawmakers killed Olaiya.
He said that the claim by Fayose’s
media aide, Lere Olayinka, that the lawmakers’ convoy killed Olaiya
was a “figment of his imagination and one in the series of media spins
he had been using to mislead the people to get sympathy.”
Wole Olujobi, the Special Adviser on
Media to the speaker said Olayinka was in a familiar terrain of mindless
propaganda to mislead the public.
He argued that its members could not
have been responsible for the death of anyone in Efon Alaaye when they
were turned back by soldiers in Itawure, a distance of about two
kilometres.
He added, “The truth is that no one was
killed. Nobody saw a dead body on the way up to Itawure junction where
the soldiers disallowed us to pass. Itawure junction is not the same as
Efon-Alaaye, so we don’t know where he got his story.
“However, we heard that Fayose removed a
dead body from the mortuary and presented it to Efon people, claiming
that Folorunso Ogundele, a member of the House of Assembly and an
indigene of Efon-Alaaye, was the one who pulled the trigger to kill a
fellow Efon-Alaaye man in order to instigate violence in the town
against him.
“For those who know Fayose very well, this story is typical of his rabble-rousing tactics to cause mob action against opponents.
“It is gratifying that the people were
able to quickly decipher that Fayose was up to a mischief to set
brothers against brothers.”
The speaker explained that the soldiers who stopped the lawmakers on their way offered no explanation for their action.
“Instead of losing our cool for their strange behaviour, we just left the place,” he stated
The statement added that sources later
confirmed that the soldiers were under a firm instruction of a
Brigadier-General to disallow the lawmakers from passing through the
check-point.
It said that the Brigadier-General ,
whose voice was heard among those that were implicated in the leaked
audio tape detailing Ekiti election fraud, is the Commander of the
Battalion where the soldiers at the check-point were attached.
The lawmakers have however vowed to go
ahead with the impeachment proceedings, saying that they had a
constitutional duty and responsibility to probe any infraction of the
constitution.
Omirin, his deputy, Tunji Orisalade and
the Majority Leader, Churchill Adedipe, also told a news conference in
Osogbo,that the Brigade Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure,
Brig-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, denied them entry into Ado Ekiti at a military
checkpoint in Ita Iwure.
They said that Momoh, who had earlier
been accused of alleged connivance with Fayose in the use soldiers to
rig the Ekiti State governorship election of 2014, was present at the
checkpoint where they were prevented from entering into the state.
The lawmakers, however, commended the
Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State, Taiwo Lakanu, for ensuring their
protection until they got to the checkpoint.
Adedipe said, “Governor Fayose used
his strategy of criminality and brigandage and we were ambushed by
soldiers at the military checkpoint in Ita Iwure.
“We were attacked, the soldiers at the
military checkpoint stopped us and they delayed us deliberately for the
thugs hired by Fayose to come and attack us there. You will recall that
Gen. Momoh, who was pointed in the Ekitigate scandal, was the same
General who was physically present at the checkpoint.
“We called our people who told us that thugs were already coming to attack us there and we turned back.
“We are calling the attention of the whole world to the unholy alliance between Fayose and the general. “
They also alleged that Fayose had concluded plans to begin to raze their business interests in Ekiti State from Tuesday night.
Adedipe said the police arrested a
commissioner in Ekiti State with a pump action rifle and another
governor’s aide with acid with were to used to attack them.
He however did not give the name of the commissioner.
The Ekiti State Police Commissioner,
Taiwo Lakanu, had last Wednesday shut the House of Assembly and deployed
personnel and Armoured Personnel Carriers to the state’s flash points.
The assembly complex is still under watch by policemen.
The Head of Service, Gbenga Faseluka,
and organised labour also on Tuesday besieged the assembly in protest
and warned the lawmakers against plunging the state into violence.
Organised labour, in a joint statement
by the Nigeria Labour Congres Secretary, Ade Obatoye; the Trade Union
Congress Secretary, Joseph Adebayo, and the Joint Negotiation Council
Secretary, Oladele Ayodeji, enjoined the entire workforce to see the
present development in the state as a way of fomenting trouble and
putting their lives at risk.
Also, the people of Igbemo Ekiti led by
one Chief Agamago Adetunji, had during a solidarity visit to Fayoase
said, ”We are solidly behind you. Ekiti people elected you to be their
leader and no power under the earth can remove you.
The Deputy Governor, Kolapo Olusola,
who received the delegation on behalf of the governor likened the APC
lawmakers action to the biblical war of Egypt against the people of
Israel.
He expressed confidence that the governor would triumph over his enemies.
“This Egyptian war led by the APC will
be defeated. Governor Fayose did not elect himself, but you put him
there. This is just a passage and it will go by the grace of God. I want
to assure you that we will see no more this war against an anointed man
in few days time,” Olusola boasted.
Also, a group of protesters led by
Agamego Adetunji from Igbemo Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun LGA paid a
solidarity visit to the governor in his office.
The group, comprising PDP members in the
LGA, carried placards with inscriptions like ‘Igbemo is for PDP not
for APC,’ ‘Fayose is our father in Igbemo just like Afao,’ ‘Fayose,
Senior Advocate of the Masses,’ and ‘Igbemo people solidly behind
Fayose.’
Olusola, who also received the delegation, thanked them for standing by the governor.
He said, ‘‘This solidarity visit shows
that you still support us. God will destroy those who vowed to destroy
Ekiti. We appreciate you. Nothing will shake this government. This
Egyptian war being led by the APC, we will see it no more. At the end of
the day, we will come together to celebrate.’’
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Council of
Traditional Rulers will on Thursday meet to deliberate on the ongoing
political crisis in the state.
The Chairman of the council and the
Onitaji of Itaji Ekiti, Oba Adamo Babalola, said on Tuesday that
they would not fold their arms and watch the situation degenerate.
Warning against recourse to violence,
Babalola said, “We have been told the runaway legislators are coming
back to Ekiti State and that impeachment notice has been served.
“I don’t know whether that is true, but
we need to give peace a chance and allow the Obas to come in to
deliberate on the matter.
“We have made attempts several times to
settle the dispute between the executive and the legislative arms. The
legislators did not answer us. I don’t know why coming to Ekiti should
involve impeachment. We will hold a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on
the matter.’’
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