23 members of Ekiti State House of Assembly pass vote of confidence in Governor Fayose

TWENTY three members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have passed a vote of confidence in Governor Ayo Fayose and disassociated themselves from a purported plot to impeach him following the recent gubernatorial elections in the state.

On July 14, Ekiti State went to the polls and in what was a two-horse race between Governor Fayose's Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Former governor and ex-solid minerals minister Dr Kayode Fayemi of the APC, emerged as the winner of the elections with 197,459 votes against the 178,121 votes secured by deputy governor and PDP candidate Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka.

Despite being backed to the hilt by Governor Fayose, Professor Eleka only managed to win in four of Ekiti State's 16 local government areas. Highly controversial, Governor Fayose has been a thorn in the side of the APC federal government for the last three years, becoming the de-facto leader of the opposition and it is expected that when his tenure ends on October 16 and the immunity from arrest he enjoys ends, the security agencies will be after him.

Already, the anti-graft agency the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it will be questioning Governor Fayose over a N1.3bn state-funded poultry programme. It is also expected that the EFCC will want to question him regarding his role in the 2014 Ekiti State governorship elections during which N4.68bn ($12.93m) was allegedly shared between him and several others.

Last Wednesday, armed policemen allegedly laid siege to the Ekiti State House of Assembly premises to pave way for the three lawmakers of the opposition APC to reconvene the plenary, a week after the members have gone on recess. The move was condemned by speaker Kolawole Oluwawole, who alleged that the signature of the assembly clerk was forged in a letter purportedly written to request for police cover.

Dr Samuel Omotoso, the spokesman of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, then spoke on behalf of the 23 members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly at Government House in Ado-Ekiti, saying they came to pay the governor a solidarity visit. He also expressed displeasure at the siege to the assembly by security agents, saying that the members are solidly behind the governor.

According to Dr Omotoso, the PDP lawmakers were fully in support of the move by the party to retrieve Professor Eleka’s mandate which was allegedly stolen from him during the recent elections. He added that they also wanted to use the medium to register their displeasure at the illegality being perpetrated by security agencies threatening to make the state ungovernable.

“As you can see, we are 23 members and 21 is present here, Mrs Titi Owolabi is not here because she is bereaved and one of us travelled overseas. We are 26 members, three are on the other side but we are united and irrevocably committed to the cause of Fayose.

“We are solidly behind him and our party the PDP. We support the decision of the party to go to court to retrieve the stolen mandate and also to tell the whole world that if 23 members are on the same page, we want to see how they want to use three members to perpetrate illegality in the state," Dr Omotoso added.