Group Defends Fayemi Over Disparaging Remarks Against Judiciary, Says Oni Too Desperate To Be Governor

By Ayodele Oni

A political/pressure Group in Ekiti state has raised its voice to defend Governor Kayode Fayemi against disparaging remarks against the judiciary.

The Social Democratic Party, (SDP) had last week alleged that the Governor made some remarks, which tend to undermine the integrity of the third arm of government.

The Movement for Integrity and Political Emancipation (MIPE), condemned the former Governor of Ekiti State , Governor Segun Oni, for allegedly sponsoring attacks against Governor Kayode Fayemi over his misinterpreted comment on the ongoing Election Petition Tribunal in Ekiti State.

The group averred that resorting to desperation, names calling and spewing of fictitious lies and desperate contrivances to pit Fayemi against the judiciary won’t avail Oni of victory, in the petition filed against the Governor elect, Biodun Oyebanji.

Some notable Oni’s cronies like; former Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Kola Oluwawole and an ex-member of the House, Femi Fakorede under the auspices of Ekiti State Concerned Stakeholders, had in a petition dated October 4, 2022, accused Fayemi of claiming that he had the judiciary in his pocket, which fueled suspicion that he was out to compromise the tribunal members.

The petition addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and Chairman, National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, contended that such demeaning and contemptuous comment could erode the indepedence of judiciary, compromise its integrity and trigger political unrest in Ekiti.

Responding to the attack on the governor, the MIPE’s Convener, Dr. Omolayo Adefare, in a statement in Ado Ekiti, on Saturday, described  the statement chronicled in the petition by Oni’s allies, as overt lies and highly confrontational and blackmail intended to ridicule the CJN and judiciary at large.

Adefare said Dr Fayemi remains one of the most refined leaders ever produced in history in Nigeria, and that at no time did he make such inciting statement against the judiciary.

He urged the CJN to regard the petition as a ranting of desperate politicians, who were expressing spleen and applying open blackmail to coopt the judiciary to do their criminal and undeserved biddings.

Adefare opined that if not for desperation to return to government by Oni at all costs, the current tribunal’s panelists, chaired by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, had not exhibited any biased tendency, or behaved in any suspicious manner, to warrant writing petition and crying hoax over phantom accusation against the governor.

He described the petition as a joke taken too far, and underhand efforts to goad the judiciary into becoming feeble and trepidated to perform its duty zealously and without bias.

“It is high time we tell Nigerians that Governor Kayode Fayemi never made any caustic comment or posed in any manner suggesting that he truly has judiciary in his pocket.

“Such act was alien to All Progressives Congress-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“President Buhari stands as the most influential Nigerian today being a sitting President, and the federal government and APC by extension had lost so many cases of interest, and judiciary was neither bullied nor browbeaten over this.

“If the President could lose myriad of cases in courts of different hierarchies despite the seemingly imposing and overriding influence, how could a Governor, outgoing governor for that matter, now boasted of having the entire gamut of judiciary in his pocket?

“This was a mischief taken too far and only gullible Nigerians would believe this fable and feeble alibi coming from Oni and his ilk.

“Fayemi in 2008 lost at the Tribunal in his case against Oni and never betrayed emotions or hurled insults at the court. He took the whole thing with equanimity and proceeded on appeal being a human right activist and defender of democracy.

“After the rerun of April 26 and May 5, 2009 in Ekiti State, Fayemi, rather than casting aspersions on the judiciary after the first appeal, decided to return to the judiciary and pressed for the reclamation of his stolen mandate until judgement came on October 15, 2010.

“If Fayemi could lose all these cases, at what time did he now become so influential to claim that he had judiciary in his pocket?

“Nigerians shouldn’t listen or get swayed by this brazen lie and outright mischief being churned out to seek public sympathies by SDP wailers.”

Saying that it is Segun Oni that has been exhibited hatred for the judiciary, Adefare added that “in 2010, when he lost his seat through a judgement well delivered by the then President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, Oni wrote similar petition to the then CJN, Justice Katsina Alu, claiming compromise in a fashion that put the judiciary into disrepute and public opprobrium.

“With what Oni and his cronies are currently doing, history is only repeating itself and Nigerians shouldn’t fall for this antics targeted at amassing public sympathies and attempt to forcefully conscript the judiciary to do their shady biddings, despite having a bad case on their hands to prosecute.”