Ekiti Crisis: Fayose calls on National Judicial Council to launch investigation

The Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to launch an investigation into the allegation of beating up a judge by him and other happenings in the state judiciary in recent times, saying it will expose the cans of worms.

He also urged the NJC, legal officers and Nigerians as a whole not to be swayed by the propaganda launched by the All Progressives Congress (APC), but to look at all issues at stake dispassionately and be guided by the truth.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja yesterday, the governor-elect said all the news about his causing troubles in the state was just a part of a grand plan by the APC to cause crisis in the state with a view to preventing his inauguration on October 16.

“What I am saying is that the NJC should launch a thorough probe on the happenings in the state judiciary and through that, the rot in the system will be exposed.

“A lot of things are happening there, and there are signs that some judicial officers are conniving with the outgoing Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, and the APC.

“The current crisis is an agenda of the APC and their sole aim is to try and get through the back door, what the people of the state did not give them on June 21 when they voted overwhelmingly for me and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“I did not and cannot slap a judge. I cannot slap a house boy, let alone a High Court judge, and I have utmost respect for judicial officers.

“The media propaganda that I beat up a judge is an APC agenda to portray me in bad light having failed to take my mandate through the back door.

“The state Attorney General, Wale Fapounda, had disclosed that he had spoken with the judge in question, on Sunrise programme on Saturday morning on Channels TV where he made it clear that the news that I slapped the judge was all lies.

“I did not enter Justice John Adeyeye’s court because I had no business to transact there. The tribunal venue, where I went to, is quite a distance from Adeyeye’s court. Then the pertinent question is, at what point did I meet him?

“Is it that the judge left his courtroom with his robe to face the so-called protesters? Investigation will reveal all this.

“Up until now, nobody has been able to provide photo or video evidence that I slapped the judge. And the APC members should know that I will not succumb to blackmail and surrender the mandate freely given to me by the people of the state,” he said.