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Members of the Peoples Democratic Party and supporters of Governor Ayodele Fayose laid siege to the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex in order to stop the resumption of the 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.
Fayose had said on Sunday that the lawmakers planned to take over the assembly to commence their impeachment proceedings against him.
He therefore urged transport unions, market women and workers to rise up and protect the mandate they gave him.
The governor’s supporters and the state PDP members clustered around the assembly complex, watching out for the APC lawmakers.
Security agencies were also seen at the entry points frisking vehicles and passersby.
While the Fayose supporters waited and discussed in clusters, the 25 newly elected PDP House of Assembly lawmakers issued a statement in which they alleged that the personal ambitions of the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, and a Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, were responsible for the aggravation of the political crisis in the state.
They called on the state stakeholders, especially traditional rulers, to prevail on the two lawmakers not to throw the state into chaos because of “their ambition to be acting governor and governor.’’
“Whoever that is interested in the Ekiti State Governorship position should wait till 2018,” the lawmakers-elect said in the statement by Gboyega Aribisogan, Segun Adewumi and Adeniran Alagbada.
But the Special Adviser on Media to Omirin, Wole Olujobi, denied that his boss aimed to become the acting governor of the state.
He also said that it could not have been true that Ojudu collected money from anyone to ensure the impeachment of Fayose in 2006.
“He (Omirin) is the Speaker of the Assembly who must check the governor’s excesses in his flagrant trampling on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Olujobi stated.
Meanwhile, the APC in the state has praised transport union associations in the state for not joining the Fayose supporters and PDP members.
The APC , in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said, “We praise the drivers and motorcycle operators for their courage and wisdom. Fayose is used to protecting his own interest and keeping his children in safety while he distributes guns to the children of others to foment trouble.
“The day he was first impeached in 2006, he asked his supporters to meet at Fajuyi to confront the soldiers. It was later that his supporters discovered that the governor had bolted to safety while his supporters were tear-gassed with several of them wounded.”