The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has raised the alarm over alleged plans by members of the Peoples Democratic Party to attack its members and supporters on Tuesday if the Supreme Court judgment threatens Governor Ayodele Fayose’s position.
The Publicity Secretary of the APC in Ekiti State, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that the party had uncovered plans to burn the houses of APC leaders and cause bodily harm to members and supporters if the judgment was not favourable to the governor.
The Supreme Court judgment arises from the petition filed by the APC challenging the June 21, 2014 governorship election that returned Fayose as the winner.
The APC is alleging that fraud, perjury, unlawful use of soldiers, intimidation of supporters and compromised ballot papers, were used to give victory to the PDP.
At the tribunal, the petition was dismissed but the party approached the Court of Appeal, which also dismissed the petition, but noted the illegality in the deployment of soldiers to rig election in Fayose’s favour and agreed that Fayose was legally removed from office having been indicted in the N1.3 billion poultry project fraud over which he was impeached by the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
The APC is claiming that in his Independent National Electoral Commission form for the 2014 governorship contest, Fayose lied on oath that he had never been indicted, claiming that he was never legally impeached.
In its judgement, the Appeal Court, even though refusing to sack Fayose, ruled that the governor was legally impeached having been indicted over fraud.
The Supreme Court is to rule in the APC’s appeal whether the governor was impeached following his indictment and the illegal use of the military to help him win the election.
For this, there have been apprehensions in both camps of APC and PDP on where the pendulum would swing.
Olatubosun said that “Since the Ekitigate tape emerged, PDP has become more desperate in its actions over where pendulum will swing in the impending judgment. They have mapped out elaborate strategies to attack our members if the judgment does not favour the governor.
“In Ikere-Ekiti, for instance, they have threatened to burn down the homes of two members of the House of Assembly in Ikere Local Government, Yomi Daramola and Clement Adu Sunday. One Ejila and Ibrahim are said to be the arrowheads of the planned attacks.
“Just today (Monday), PDP members were attacking the street sweepers in Ikere-Ekiti, accusing them of not voting for PDP in the weekend election while in Ado-Ekiti, the home of APC candidate for the last weekend House of Assembly election, Sola Olofin, was attacked, even they are planning to attack the home of another Assembly candidate, Sola Fatoba, these attacks are carryover of the violence during Saturday’s State Assembly election marred with ballot snatching and violence.”
Olatubosun called on the security agencies to provide adequate security for APC members while those causing crisis in the state should be arrested.
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