Fayose dismisses Ekiti APC 102 petitions against 2014 guber election,
says; “IGP should be mindful of desperate paper-weight guber
aspirants”. Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has told the All
Progressives Congress (APC) to stop chasing shadows on the June 21, 2014
governorship election in the State and wait for 2018, saying:
“writing over 100 petitions to the office of the Inspector General of
Police (IGP) on an election conducted two years ago and was adjudged as
free, fair and credible even by the international community, including
the United States of America government is a demonstration of the APC
desperation to throw Ekiti State into chaos just because the party lost
power.”
Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the
governor, Lere Olayinka, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Sunday,
wondered how many petitions should have been written against the
Presidential Election if APC could write over 100 petitions against an
election held in just 16 out of the 774 Local Councils in the country.”
The governor, who advised the new IGP not to allow himself to dragged
into the Ekiti State APC blinded show of political desperation, added
that; “the IGP should maintain the culture of professional policing and
maintenance of rule of law as done by his immediate predecessor, Mr
Solomon Arase. He should be mindful of being drawn into needless
political fights orchestrated by some APC governorship aspirants in
Ekiti State just because of fear of 2018.”
He pointed out that; “assuming but not conceding that offences were
committed by anyone before, during and after the election held two years
ago, the Ekiti State Police Command would have carried out its
investigation and made anyone found culpable to face the law.
“It should also be pointed out that it is the duty of the Attorney
General of Ekiti State to prosecute anyone that committed any offence in
Ekiti State and not that of the Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF).
“Most importantly, the IGP should be mindful of the reality that writing
over 100 petitions to the police, two years after an election was won
and lost and expecting the police to embark on wanton arrest of innocent
Ekiti people is a clear invitation to anarchy and it is hoped that the
new IGP won’t begin his career as the number one police officer in
Nigeria with the ridiculous action of running after PDP members in Ekiti
State instead of focusing on the growing insecurity in the country.”
Speaking further, the governor said; “If the APC bad losers in Ekiti
State are still making noise over an election they lost in all the 16
Local Councils in the State two years ago, Nigerians should ask
questions as to whether it was through the use of security agents that
the PDP won the Presidential, National Assembly and State House of
Assembly elections last year.
“The IGP should be mindful of the fact that as at today, dispute on the
governorship election has become functus officio because as a general
rule, once a tribunal has reached a final decision in respect to the
matter that is before it in accordance with its enabling statute, that
decision cannot be revisited.
“The IGP should also be reminded that the US Department of State and
other International Observers, which observed the election, praised
security forces (including the police) for collaborating effectively in
providing a safe environment free of major incidents.
“Therefore, these petitions, which are obviously meant to orchestrate
the harassment and intimidation of PDP members in Ekiti State and
notable functionaries of the government should be ignored by the IGP
while the police boss focusses on the greater task of resolving the
security problems being faced by the country.”
