Nobody can stop Fayose’s swearing-in — Oluwawole The Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Mr. Kola Oluwawole, in this interview with FEMI MAKINDE, accuses the All Progressives Congress of scheming to scuttle the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Ayo Fayose as the governor of the state Is it not logical to blame the PDP for the attack on the APC secretariat following the killing of former chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in Ekiti State, Omolafe Aderiye? The PDP did not sponsor any attack on the APC secretariat or against anybody. The attack on the APC secretariat was as a result of the reaction of the people who felt that the assassination of Omolafe Aderiye was unwarranted and wicked. Aderiye, who was murdered, was a former chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in the state. Some people were aggrieved with the way he was killed and reacted the way they did. It is wrong to blame the PDP for the attack. There was no evidence to link the PDP or any of its leaders to the attack. Do you think Aderiye’s killing has a political undertone? I have just told you that Aderiye was a strong leader of the NURTW and at the same time, he was a very strong member of PDP and a frontline follower of the governor-elect, Mr. Ayo Fayose. That culminated in the reaction of the people who expressed anger at his murder. There are claims that Aderiye was killed by the PDP as a cover-up so that he will not disclose that he was the one sent to unleash violence on the court? I have just told you that Aderiye was a strong member of PDP and a close ally of the governor-elect, so how could the PDP have killed its strong mobiliser? This is not logical. How could you kill your own man? For what? For mobilising thousands of supporters? Those who are behind this particular heinous crime are probably the ones saying this. They are saying it to divert attention and to cover their crime but the truth will eventually emerge. The blood of Aderiye will speak and it will find out the perpetrators. Don’t you think the crisis unfolding in the state can make the swearing-in of Fayose on October 16 impossible? By the special grace of God, he ( Fayose) will be sworn in and nothing will stop it. There is nothing that can stop it because he contested and there was no contrary pronouncement from the Independent National Electoral Commission or its zonal headquarters. So, by the grace of God, the Governor-elect, Mr. Ayo Fayose, will be sworn in on October 16, 2014. Their plans will fail and Mr. Ayo Fayose will be sworn in. Why did PDP followers attack the court? PDP members did not attack anybody; they did not attack the court. What happened was that the APC wanted to get a jankara judgment through the back door in order to scuttle the swearing-in of Fayose. The people of the state who freely gave Fayose their mandate were following the events and believed that their mandate given to Fayose was about to be scuttled, so they protested. It was not an attack but a protest from about 5,000 voters who were in court when the incident happened. They sensed that the mandate which they gave to Fayose at the poll was about to be scuttled through a back-door judgment. They knew that the APC was about thwarting their mandate and they protested. There were reports that some judges were beaten by hoodlums who followed Fayose to the court. I was there and there was nothing like that. I was in the court premises on that day. I was there in company of the governor-elect, Ayo Fayose. We were going to the venue of the Election Petitions Tribunal that was hearing the petition against him. Justice John Adeyeye was in either Court 3 or Court 4 and the tribunal was holding at Court 5, he left his chamber and asked the people to stop making a noise. I believe it is an aberration for the judge to leave his chamber in his robe, come out and challenge the people outside, saying they were making a noise. He came out to challenge about over 5,000 people at the court that they were making a noise, I think a judge should not be the one doing this. I was amazed when some people said Fayose supervised the attack. Some said he slapped the judge, they are all lies. How would he have slapped the judge in broad daylight? It is a wicked lie. People should learn how to say the truth and nothing but the truth. The Attorney-General of the state said during a programme on Channels Television that he spoke with the judge and the judge said he (Fayose) did not slap him. That should settle the matter. What is the way out of this crisis now? The way out is that justice should prevail. The PDP has already alerted the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of the Federation. We are asking them to investigate the actual cause of this problem. What they discover would be the startling truth about this crisis. Is it true to say that security agencies are conniving with the PDP to cause crisis in the state? This is fallacious. Security agents cannot distinguish PDP members from APC members; how can they be accused of conniving with the PDP to attack the APC. The commissioner of police in the state is a new man. How many PDP members does he know? Security agents have the task of protecting the people of the state and not to discriminate against any. That is another damaging allegation against the police. The police are doing their best. Is it true that PDP leaders are living in fear as the swearing-in date approaches? We have officially informedsecurity agencies on the need to protect the lives of political leaders particularly those who have been listed for assassination. The governor-elect and some other leaders of the PDP have been listed for assassination. We raised the alarm of the planned assassination of PDP leaders on September 22 and on September 26 they carried out the first one, they killed Omolafe Aderiye. This confirmed that the alarm was not a hoax. We require adequate security, especially our leaders and their family members. Their lives should be well protected in order to prevent these people from beginning another round of assassination. I want to appeal to the people of Ekiti State to remain calm. Those who are looking forward to the day their governor-elect will be sworn in should not lose hope because the day will surely come to pass by the grace of God. Those who lost the election should learn how to accept defeat
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:40:41 +0000
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