Impeachment saga: Ekiti APC lawmakers ask court to jail Fayose for “manipulating” ruling

The 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have urged a Federal High Court, Abuja, to slam a contempt charge against Governor Ayodele Fayose for allegedly manipulating its ruling.

The aggrieved lawmakers warned that Fayose’s impunity and manipulation of facts of his impeachment case in the media won’t save him.
The lawmakers were reacting to media reports on the ruling of the Federal High Court ‎in Abuja, which refused Fayose and seven Peoples Democratic Party lawmakers’ request, which sought to stop the APC lawmakers from continuing impeachment proceedings against the governor.
Mr. Wole Olujobi, Special Adviser to the Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, in a statement on Saturday, said that the APC lawmakers were surprised that the governor and his men could deliberately misrepresent the fact of the ruling to mislead the public.
“It is incredible that the governor and the PDP lawmakers could manipulate the press again to mislead the public that the ruling by Justice Evoh Chukwu‎ was in their favour.
“While the judge clearly ruled that it could not stop Fayose’s impeachment without hearing from the APC lawmakers, the governor went to town, in a contempt of court to turn full circle the ruling by the judge”, the statement explained.
It added, “He first raided the courts and chased the judges under their tables and subsequently closed the courts. After that, he closed the House of Assembly and chased the lawmakers out of town.
“Then it is the turn of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media, in a mindless fraud and manipulation of the press to have an upper hand in the face of flagrant trampling on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Fayose is now creating for himself a reputation as an enemy of the state who within few months killed all democratic institutions and their supporting structures in Nigeria in a mindless pursuit of power”.
The statement, therefore, prayed the court to establish a contempt charge against the governor and his men for this “thoughtless manipulation and misrepresentation of the ruling to put the court in bad light”.
It said the latest was one in the series of misdemeanors by the governor over which his supporters had said nothing‎ while always trying to find fault with APC lawmakers.
Reacting through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, the embattled governor said he would not dignify the APC with a response.
He said, “We are not interested in joining issues with them on pages of newspapers on the court ruling since we know and everybody knows the type of character‎ the APC lawmakers are.
“A dog that will perish will not listen to the whistle of the hunter”.