The Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, has tabled before the National Judicial Council ahead of the council’s meeting scheduled for Thursday, a petition accusing the state’s Governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, and the police of complicity in the attack on judges and court workers in the state last week.
A copy of the September 26, 2014 petition addressed to the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police of which was also attached to a covering letter sent to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, as the Chairman of the NJC, was exclusively obtained by Punch Newspaper from a police source in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday.
The covering letter sent to the Chief Judge was learnt to have been dated September 29.
Justice Daramola, in his petition to both the NJC and the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, accused Fayose of leading a large number of thugs, who disrupted court proceedings, beat up judges and court workers and also tore court records.
He also accused the policemen and other law enforcement agents deployed within and outside the court premises of “looking on completely uninterested and unconcerned” while the attacks by the thugs on the court workers and users lasted.
The Chief Judge justified the closure of the courts in the state after the mayhem, an action which he said was to avert “looming danger within the premises of the High Court of Ekiti State” after the police officers “posted to guard and protect the integrity of the court and its personnel have failed us and left us at the mercy of political hoodlums”.
It was also learnt on Tuesday that Fayose had through, his lawyers, sent a separate petition to the NJC, alleging that the Justices of the Governorship Election Tribunal, sitting in Ado-Ekiti High Court headquarters had received bribe.
Fayose alleged that the panel members had been bribed by Governor Kayode Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress to rule against him on September 25, when the court proceedings were disrupted by thugs allegedly loyal to him.
Fayose led thugs to court
But the Chief Judge, in the petitions both entitled, ‘Ekiti State Judiciary under siege of political thugs,’ chronicled the invasion of the court premises in Ado-Ekiti, by thugs between September 22 and September 24.
The petition read in part, “Now on Thursday, the 25th day of September, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the governor-elect, again led thousands of people and thugs into the premises of the High Court beating and maiming members of staff.
“The thugs invaded my court where I was to deliver a judgment in a land matter, tore the record books, beat court officials and vandalized the furniture in Court No. 1.
“The political thugs descended on Hon. Justice J. A Adeyeye, the presiding judge in Court No. 3 beat and dragged him on the ground. The judge’s suit was also torn into shreds. I could not gain entrance into the premises of the court and had to hurriedly turn back on being alerted that I was the prime target of the hooligans.”
Justice Daramola said the attack on the court on September 25 was preceded by a similar siege on the court premises on September 22, when thugs allegedly loyal to Fayose disrupted court proceedings apparently to avert the delivery of a ruling which they suspected could go against the governor-elect.
The plaintiffs in the suit are challenging Fayose’s eligibility to contest the governorship election.
The CJ said he was at the Supreme Court in Abuja attending the special court session marking the commencement of the new legal year and the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria on some lawyers when the violence first broke out on Monday, September 22.
A copy of the petition reads in part, “On Monday 22nd day of September, while I was attending the Supreme Court Special sitting in Abuja, I was called on phone that thugs loyal to Mr. Ayodele Fayose have invaded the headquarters of the judiciary of Ekiti State where Hon. Justice I.O Ogunyemi was deliver a ruling on the matter instituted against him.
“The thugs beat workers black and blue while the presiding judge and lawyers had to run for their lives. They smashed windows and furniture. Meanwhile, the policemen deployed within and without the premises in large number were looking on completely uninterested and unconcerned while these thugs were on prowl beating and maiming workers and court users.
“The thugs went on searching for the judge who ran into hiding. It took your (the Commissioner of Police) personal intervention when you were duly informed on phone to rush to the scene of the mayhem within the court premises to rescue the said judge and took him out into safety.”
According to him, from the events which followed that of September 22, it appears that the whole episode of violence was pre-planned.
His petition further read, “The above in the main was just the beginning of what would appear to be a pre-planned long siege and onslaughts on the court and its personnel.
“The political hoodlums showed again in large numbers on Tuesday, 23rd and Wednesday 24th of September, 2014 on the spurious ground that they came to listen to the ruling which they did not allow the presiding judge in Court No. 6 to deliver on Monday, September 22, 2014. No such ruling was slated for hearing since the thugs invaded the premises of the court on Monday.”
The Chief Judge said all entreaties to the police and law enforcement agencies to intervene in the mayhem yielded no positive response.
He stated, “It is needless to reiterate here that while the mayhem and attack on judges and staff and property of the court was in progress, scores of policemen and SSS (State Security Service) operatives posted to protect lives and property within the court premises looked on and watched without taking any step to save the situation.
“All entreaties to officers and men of Ekiti State Command to protect the court as an important institution of state yielded no positive response.”
It Is a pity that the legal system in the state are the first to reap the bad seed they sown last time. Hard luck. Anyway you cannot plant beans and harvest maize. PDP has come so please learn how to leave with it i.e by taking what they want. 100% loyalty. I am still suprised how any reasonable person will vote PDP. From kaduna,Niger,Kogi, Benue, where do you see Gov performing. No single one kilometer road constructed.
ReplyDeleteYou are just a sentimental umpire or follower.
DeleteWell spoken but if only their baised mind will allowed to understant and to reason with you.
DeleteAre there proofs to the effect that Mr Fayose commanded this barbaric act. Was anyone arrested and confessed Fayose? If the claim that The judges are bribe to disqualify Fayose, its possible Fayose may not be directly involved with this fracas. He was overwhelmingly voted for. So if this voters observed that their choice is to be slaughtered on the biased scale of justice, then, and naturally, these voters may become violent.
ReplyDeleteEkiti prides herself as the fountain of knowledge & yet, voted a tout in as their governor. What a shame!!
ReplyDeleteTo desecrate the temple of justice is an open invitation to anarchy and its satanic agents! Any party that rules Ekiti state would have to rely on the Judiciary, an independent arm of government, to maintain peace and order. In the light of this the recent happenings in Ekiti Judiciary cannot be Justified. If you have the mandate of the people, lawfully or illegally, you still need the Judiciary to maintain peace and order, and hence defend your mandate. Justice would be done in Ekiti state because, peace, without Justice is peace of the graveyard.
ReplyDelete“The political thugs descended on Hon. Justice J. A Adeyeye, the presiding judge in Court No. 3 beat and dragged him on the ground. The judge’s suit was also torn into shreds. I could not gain entrance into the premises of the court and had to hurriedly turn back on being alerted that I was the prime target of the hooligans.”
ReplyDeleteThe above is an obvious hearsay. Speaks for itself. The Hon. Chief Judge was not a witness of events. He himself has said it all. He was unable to gain entrance and hurriedly drove away. How then was he very certain that Ayo Fayose led the thugs?
There is more to what happened than meets the ordinary eye! It would seem to me that the State judiciary is partisan. Not that it in anyway justify the people taking the laws into their own hands. Anyone found to have been involved in the mayhem should be prosecuted to avoid a repetition of same. What happened in Ekiti State portends great danger to our nascent democracy and should be nipped in the bud!
Good for judges who want to overturn people mandate given to fayose, no way for APC. APC must accept defeat when it happens. Tinubu believes in bribing everybody. APC trust in bribe and taking people mandate by force. Fayose is not such. Lesson for the APC.
ReplyDeletePls try to be a bit objective. The issue is that Ayo Fayose ought to have allowed the court procedings to go on. Who is Ayo to lead thugs to the court premises. How can you support such. Its not a matter of APC or PDP. The truth is that that man Ayo took the law into his hands. It is wrong. Accept it. He stupified himself.
Deletewith the writeup we can see that the Geoge is lying
ReplyDeleteNigeria is a lawless nation, that's the bottom line. Even our president was involved recently in illegally smuggling $9.3m into South Africa in a private jet belonging to a religious leader. Thugs are elected Governors through the influence of a lawless ilite. This corrupt nation should never have been granted independence by the British.
ReplyDeletewhat happened in Ekiti State is not a hearsay thing, it's a fact and the truth. No matter what the thugs did was a sacrilege, no good Nigerian will support the act. No matter what happened the suppose to allow the court to do their job. They still have right to appeal if the ruling is not favorable to them.Let call evil evil
ReplyDeletei jst w0nda hw ppl make such allegati0ns witut substanciating it wit evidence.hw can fay0se g0vern0r elect lead thugs t0 a c0urt premises.haba APC.u cant simple accept defeat.must d entire s0uth west be APC.wat has hpnd 2 d mandate 0f d ppl.hw i wish d judge was even killed,0r d judge shld ask salami wat hpnd 2 him at d suprem c0urt.
ReplyDelete