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| Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose |
The Ekiti State House of Assembly has asked the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission to immediately release the bank account of
the state Governor, Ayodele Fayose.
The assembly while describing the action of the commission as ultra
vires, maintained that a citizen’s account could not be frozen without a
court order.
Addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, the Chairman of
Committee on Information, Mr. Gboyega Aribisogan, said the action was
null and void since a sitting governor could not be listed in a case
before a court of law because of his immunity.
The legislators had at a plenary earlier in the day presided over
by Speaker Kola Oluwawole passed a resolution calling on the EFCC to
immediately release Fayose’s account.
The motion was moved by Leader of Business, Tunji Akinyele (Oye 2) and seconded by Dare Pelemo (Ekiti East 2).
They also passed a vote of confidence in Fayose, who won the election exactly two years.
Aribisogan wondered why the same EFCC which froze Fayose’s account
failed to investigate the allegations of financial mismanagement leveled
against his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
He also disclosed that the House had extended an invitation to the
Commissioner for Finance during the Fayemi administration, Dapo
Kolawole, to clarify some issues raised during a recent interview on a
television station.
Aribisogan added, “The APC-led Federal Government should
concentrate on good governance to reduce poverty and several security
challenges in the country rather than embarking on a wild goose chase of
perceived opposition as seen in their several attempts to muzzle
Governor Ayodele Fayose and many others.”
Contributing, Chairman House Committee on Health, Samuel Omotoso,
said the latest action was “a move by the EFCC to seek vengeance against
the PDP-led government in Ekiti State.”
Meanwhile, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti loyal
to the governor had described the freezing of his account by the EFCC
as “an indecent practice in a democracy.”
The Gboyega Oguntuase-led faction in a statement by its Publicity
Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, alleged that the action was one of the
several moves by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government
“to silence opposition in order to cover its poor governance.”
The faction accused President Muhammadu Buhari of using the EFCC to
cower the opposition, saying it is “puerile, inconsistent and bogus” to
investigate an account in isolation of its holders.’
“We want to say categorically that the federal government is
sliding into rascality in dealing with opposition while the face of
dictatorship has been unveiled in Nigeria as it was the practice of the
military era. “
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