Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the political crisis in the state.
Tension rose again on Monday as supporters of Fayose and members of the Peoples Democratic Party laid a siege to the 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.
Amid this, the governor tendered a cheque as part of evidence of payment of outstanding salaries and allowances to the opposition lawmakers.
News had filtered into town Sunday night that the lawmakers had allegedly grouped in a hotel in a neighboring state to invade the state with a plot to impeach Fayose, and his deputy, Dr. Kolapo Olusola.
The Police were quickly mobilised to the Ekiti State House of Assembly to prevent breakdown of law and order by condoning all roads leading to the Assembly Complex.
Asides several Patrol Vans that were stationed at every junction linking to the complex, an Armoured Personnel Carrier was placed in front of the Assembly while combat ready riot policemen were on guard.
The PDP members and commercial motorcyclists blocked secretariat and NTA roads leading to the Assembly.
As of 3pm, the PDP members were still at the Assembly, while the policemen were still stationed on guard.
At a statewide broadcast made later in the day, the governor said while he would not support shedding of blood, the people should rise to defend the mandate given to him.
After the broadcast, commercial life in the city went dead as traders hurriedly locked their shops while civil servants packed their bags and left for home before the official closing time.
Fayose, while addressing journalists earlier in Ado Ekiti over the tension in town, insisted that all the entitlements of the APC lawmakers had been paid, contrary to the denial of Speaker Adewale Omirin.
The governor flaunted copies of Skye Bank cheques of May 26, 2015, issued to the lawmakers to corroborate his claim.
One of the cheques, which bore the name Boluwade Kehinde, was received on behalf of the lawmaker and had a sum of N2,149,052 .37 on it.
Fayose warned that it would amount to contempt of court for Omirin to continue with any impeachment proceedings against him in view of the ruling delivered by Justice E.S. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, which ordered that status quo as of April 23 be maintained pending the determination of the motion on notice.
The Assembly PDP leader, Dele Olugbemi, and six other lawmakers, had in the suit, sought an interlocutory injunction among other reliefs restraining the APC lawmakers from commencing impeachment against Fayose.
The governor said, “They have been dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari as giving them the backing to impeach me. How can an Assembly, whose tenure will wind up on Thursday be planning this. I wonder why the issue of the past should be allowed to come to play now.
“As of the date the court gave the order, I mean April 23, Adewale Omirin was not the speaker. It will be wrong for the court order not to be respected. This is illegality and I want to raise this for the public to know.
“Omirin has gone to Court to challenge his impeachment and later withdrew such, which means he accepted he had been impeached and a cost of N100,000 was awarded against him.
“So, he is not the Speaker. I am calling on well-meaning Nigerians, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Mahmoud and President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in this matter.
“How can somebody be living in another State and be planning to invade his own state; this is something else and I view this as a major crime anyone can commit against his people.”
On the payment of the salaries and other benefits to the lawmakers, Fayose said, “They came to collect the cheques in Ado Ekiti in company with the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Toyin Ojo.
“The issue would have been discussed publicly during the peace parley, but they insisted that it should not be discussed openly because they didn’t want the leaders of their party to know,” he added.
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