A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, has called for the arrest of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, saying that the governor rigged the June 21, 2014 Ekiti governorship election.
A statement by Falana’s organisation, Value and Integrity Group, on Thursday, said Fayose should be tried for the ‘political malfeasance that characterised the Ekiti governorship election’.
The statement was signed by the coordinator of the group, Shina Odugbemi.
The statement said, “Having consistently demanded the prosecution of all the wicked criminals who shared in the looting of the funds meant for the procurement of arms, Mr. Falana has called for the arrest and trial of Mr. Ayodele Fayose and his cohorts over the N4.8bn deployed to perpetrate the grave electoral malfeasance that characterised the last Ekiti State governorship election.
“In particular, Mr. Falana stated that Mr. Fayose should be tried since he was a candidate and not a governor when the serious electoral offences were committed by him. On his contention that the governor’s immunity does not cover his impunity, Mr. Falana cited several decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.
“With respect to fresh facts which have established that the election was marred by monumental fraud, Mr. Falana has opined that the Supreme Court could be approached by the APC to review its judgment on the endorsement of the election of Mr. Fayose
since it is trite law that any judgment obtained by fraud is liable to be set aside.”
Dismissing the allegation of inconsistency, Falana said that he, like many other Nigerians, did not know that the election was marred by irregularities — hence his earlier position that the election was won by Fayose.
Falana added, “However, in recent time, earth-shaking revelations have been credited to those who took part in the illegal use of armed soldiers to manipulate the election in favour of Mr. Fayose.
“When the revelations of Captain Sagir Koli who recorded the conversation of the electoral bandits, including the altercation between General Aliyu Momoh and Mr. Fayose were published last year, there were denials by the dramatis personae.”
But Fayose said Falana was attacking his administration because he was frustrated by his inability to realise his ambition of governing Ekiti State.
A statement by the Special Assistant to Fayose on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Thursday, denied the allegation that several unresolved murders occurred during the first term of Fayose as governor.
The statement said, “It is strange that a lawyer of Falana’s standing would keep talking about someone committing a crime over 10 years ago without him being able to get the person convicted. Oga Femi Falana is fast turning himself into a jester with his obsession of jumping on the rooftop to make noise over anything about Ayo Fayose.
“Falana did not utter a word to condemn the murder of 10 indigenes of the state that were murdered during the tenure of the APC government.
“He (Falana) can come to Ekiti and stand for election again and let’s see if he can win even the House of Assembly election in Ilawe-Ekiti, his hometown.
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