A challenge to governor Ayodele Fayose
Nelson Ekujumi
Since the freezing of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State personal bank account in Zenith bank Plc by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) based on investigation as made public on Monday 20th June 2016, the man has been speaking from both sides of the mouth by resorting to blackmail just to distract from the allegations leveled against him, that necessitated the freezing of his account in line with the constitutional mandate of the anti graft body, which is that, funds meant to prosecute the war against boko haram in North East region of Nigeria was diverted and transferred from the office of the ex NSA Sambo Dasuki into his personal bank account in Ado Ekiti via cronies.
And just on Wednesday 22/06/2016, Governor Fayose came up with series of stories of trying to divert attention from the issue on ground by among other things, stating that his 2014 gubernatorial campaign was funded by Zenith bank just to distract from the substance of the issue of alledged fraudulent lodgements into his personal account from the office of the ex NSA.
Fortunately enough, Zenith bank Plc has come out publicly to deny ever funding the gubernatorial campaign of Mr. Fayose in 2014 via reportage in the media, so we await the response or the new new line of story of Mr. Fayose to Zenith bank Plc denial of his statement linking them to his 2014 campaign funding
For the information of us all, it is important to emphasize here, that the purpose of the freezing of the bank account of Mr. Fayose by the EFCC was not based on investigation into his 2014 gubernatorial campaign funds, but rather is a fallout of investigation into the mismanagement and diversion of security funds meant to prosecute the war against book haram by the office of the ex NSA Sambo Dasuki in what is now known derisively as Dasukigate, so we should all be clear about that.
Anyway, one is not surprised by all the theatrics of Mr. Fayose who is behaving true to type of being economical with the truth in all matters which is in his character if we recollect the position of same Governor Ayodele Fayose outright denial in the face of obvious facts, when the scandal of 2014 Ekiti State gubernatorial election coup called “Ekitigate” tape was exposed by captain Sagir Koli. After listening to the voices in the recorded tape in which the voice of Mr. Fayose was unmistakably clear, wherein he was heard threatening Brig. Gen. Momoh of not cooperating enough in line with the script of former President Goodluck Jonathan that he Fayose was the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces for the election, from whom all orders must emanate and be obeyed. But just like one of his co-conspirators, former minister of state for defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro who equally voiced in threatening the army general in the tape that he was sent on a special assignment by ex President Jonathan, both Fayose and Obanikoro denied that the voices, heard unmistakably in the tape, plotting how to undermine democracy in the Ekiti state gubernatorial elections in 2014 was their own.
However, their denial of lie in the Ekitigate recorded tape was exposed by one of the actors in the plot whose voice was heard in the tape also, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who admitted that their voices as heard in the tape was all about accosting the army officer to lodge a complaint, but we all heard what transpired by listening to the tape despite Omisore’s failed attempt to pull wool over our eyes and we are still demanding justice on the matter.
Thus, the challenge to Governor Ayodele Fayose now is that, if he knows that the EFCC have acted illegally by freezing his personal bank account in violation of his right to immunity as guaranteed under section 308 of the constitution just because he is an unrepentant critic of President Buhari, then he should be courageous enough to wave aside his immunity by stepping down as Governor of Ekiti state and daring the EFCC to prosecute him with their “fabricated” allegations, only then will we take Governor Fayose serious as not playing to the gallery and assaulting our collective intelligence.
Governor Ayodele Fayose should be admonished to take this challenge of waving aside his immunity to dare the EFCC to prosecute him, because they cannot do so now due to his immunity status but have the powers to investigate him as evidenced in the judgement of Justice S. O. Uwaifo led panel of seven Justices of the Supreme court ruling on the famous Gani Fawehinmi versus Bola Tinubu case in May, 2002
Governor Ayodele Fayose, the ball is in your court, act now by taking up this challenge for the good of our democracy.
Nelson Ekujumi, a social commentator writes from Lagos
