We'll resist Fayose's attempt to ridicule Fayemi – APC chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governorship aspirant in Ekiti state, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, on Wednesday, warned Governor Ayodele Fayose that any attempt to ridicule former Governor Kayode Fayemi through probe panel would be resisted by the party.


Fayose had on Monday constituted a judicial panel, led by a former acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Silas Oyewole, to probe  Fayemi's administration between October 2010 to October 2014 over alleged financial misappropriation.

In a statement in Ado-Ekiti, Faparusi said the judicial panel set up by the governor to try his predecessor was a  "predetermined and well-orchestrated attempt to ridicule" President Muhammadu Buhari as well smearing the personality of Dr Kayode Fayemi.

Faparusi, who warned against the timing and consequences of the probe panel, said Fayose's action was also another way to distract the APC, especially now that political parties are getting prepared for the 2018 governorship election in the state.

“What have Fayose and assembly being doing for the past three years before waking from their deep slumber to know that Fayemi must be probed?  Fayose is gradually turning Ekiti into a huge laboratory where all sorts of political experiments, shoddy ones for that matter were being carried out."

On the governor’s intention to seek redress in court over possible extension of his tenure beyond 2018 on account of his impeachment in 2006, Faparusi said such could only exist in the wildest imagination of a "theatric like Fayose, who sees governance as a comic relief, rather than a serious business."

Faparusi clarified that the Supreme Court in case of Muritala Nyako Vs FG ruled that a governor whose tenure was abruptly terminated via illegal impeachment can only be entitled to the perks of office throughout the time there was a vacancy and not tenure elongation.

He said further: “The governor should have known that he cannot be entitled to third term in office, neither can the oath of office be administered on him three times. What former Governor Nyako wanted to achieve was to finish the remaining nine months of his second term tenure before he was ousted and the Supreme Court was so unequivocal that since that dispensation had lapsed, he could only be entitled to the benefits and that has become a functus officio as far as this case is concerned.

“Governor Fayose should refrain from wasting the precious time of the court by wanting to engage  in mere academic exercise that has no legal fecundity, having been earlier determined by the apex court."