by Deji Abiodun
The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers in Ekiti State House of Assembly have raised the alarm over an alleged plot by Governor Ayodele Fayose to use thugs to kidnap them.
They asked the governor to stop the harassment, adding that no intimidation would make them compromise their stand on his impeachment.
But in a swift reaction, the governor denied the allegation and dismissed the alarm as a false ranting.
The lawmakers, who said they had alerted the security operatives to the threat to their lives, argued that the kidnap plot had revealed the insincerity of the governor in his truce meeting called last week to end the impasse.
The group in a statement issued by Wole Olujobi, special adviser on Media to Speaker Adewale Omirin, said Fayose remained the main obstacle to peace in Ekiti State. “We note the surveillance activities of the governor by the accurate and inaccurate accounts of our movements as posted on the facebook wall of his aide, Lere Olayinka.”
“We can’t ignore the information by our usually reliable sources about this kidnap plan. The governor is capable of any evil. We have it on good authority that he is on our trail just to arrest some of us so that we don’t have the quorum for his impeachment.”
“The alternative is to kidnap members of our family, particularly our children in their schools, by a faceless gang calling themselves a concerned Ekiti State non-political group to hide their political identity. They are to insist that the lawmakers must drop their impeachment plan or the children will be killed,” the statement explained.
“The governor cannot swear with his Holy Bible that he did not celebrate the plan in the Government House to arrest us on our way to the peace meeting at Afe Babalola University.”
They urged the security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities by ensuring adequate security for all Ekiti people regardless of their political leanings.
But Governor Fayose through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, dismissed the alarm as an unfounded allegation. His words: “We have seen this as one of the usual false rants of people afraid of their own shadows against their state and a popularly-elected governor that has on many occasions proven them as liars.
“It is either they have always wanted to entertain their uninformed and gullible listening audience? or to make themselves happy by saying everyday that they want to impeach Governor Fayose.”
“Ironically, many Nigerians not on the same page with them have realised them to be a bunch of outcasts throwing stones at home.”
“The APC lawmakers have to come up with this falsehood to cover their shameful desecration of the status of Ekiti elders, whose genuine efforts at peace they have spurned only to continue in their despicable lies against their state.”
Fayose enjoined the people of the state to ignore the lawmakers and continue their support for his government.
