Former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi will not appear before the Judicial Commission of Enquiry investigating the management of the state’s finances under his watch, his lawyer, Chief Rafiu Balogun, has said.
During the panel’s sitting yesterday, Balogun said he was entering a “conditional appearance” of “appearance in protest” for his client.
The lawyer said Fayemi, minister of Mines and Steel Development, got the panel’s summons but would not appear because of circumstances that predated the constitution of the panel.
He applied to make an oral application, but the panel’s Chairman, Justice Silas Oyewole, advised him to make a formal application, in line with rules of the commission.
The panel ordered Balogun to file an application excusing the former governor from appearing next Monday.
But it ordered a Commissioner for Finance during the Fayemi administration, Mr. Dapo Kolawole, to appear before it on September 11.
This followed Balogun’s prayer for an adjournment for Kolawole, who was summoned to give evidence yesterday.
Counsel to the panel Mr. Sunday Bamise claimed a lawyer, Mr. Ibrahim Olanrewaju, got the summons on behalf of Kolawole, but another lawyer, Adeoye Aribasoye, debunked the claim.
Aribasoye argued that he, Olanrewaju and Mr. Tajudeen Akingbolu announced appearances as “observers” at the panel’s last sitting but did not appear for Fayemi and Kolawole or ever got processes on their behalf.
Justice Oyewole said the record before the panel showed Olanrewaju signed to receive the summons on Kolawole’s behalf, which Aribasoye may be aware of.
The chairman said the panel was on a “fact-finding mission and not raised to crucify anybody”.
Aribasoye added that the ex-commissioner was not properly served.
Other parties at yesterday’s sitting were CASA Nigeria Limited, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jichengi Yuyan Limited and officials of Ministry of Works and Transportation.