The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti state has threatened to sue Governor Ayodele Fayose for allegedly masterminding the illegal arrest and detention of seven of its members.
The APC members were arrested and remanded in prison custody for more than three years over complicity in the murder of the ex-Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers(NURTW) in the State, Chief Omolafe Aderiye.
Aderiye, a close ally of Fayose was murdered on September 25, 2014 by unknown gunmen in Ado Ekiti, at his private garage located at the Ijigbo area of the town.
The party members that were prosecuted for alleged murder and later discharged included, the Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress in Ekiti, Chief Niyi Adedipe, Chief Rotimi Olabiwonnu, Mr Adebayo Aderiye, Sola Durodola, Kayode Ajayi, Oso Farotimi and Sola Adenijo.
The state High Court, presided over by Justice Lekan Ogunmoye in his judgment on struck out the charges preferred against the detainees for want of evidence.
The party Acting State Chairman, Mrs. Kemi Olaleye revealed plans to sue the governor at a victory rally held in honour of the discharged members, where party supporters and members marched from the popular Okeyinmi area to Ajilosun in a long convoy of vehicles and motorcade conveying the freed detainees.
To prevent a breakdown of law and order following pronouncement on a state radio that the people should boycott the rally under the guise that the proponents were political hoodlums, the commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abdullahi Chafe, deployed heavy security along Okeyinmi-Ajilosun –Akure road.
The rally, according to the state party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, was also mooted to rally support for President Muhamadu Buhari, the party ahead of the impending governorship battle and to mark the return of their members from prison.
He also lampooned Fayose for issuing a white paper banning Dr Kayode Fayemi from holding political office for ten years for alleged corruption, saying, “the former governor is a leader in Nigeria and the governor was only joking with such illegal pronouncement.”
Addressing the crowd at Ijigbo junction, Olaleye, said the party will go to court to challenge what she described as “unlawful arrest, imprisonment and prosecution of their members for political reason”. Olaleye added that, “God has vindicated them and the judgment shows that the country’s judiciary is independent and we expect them to do more against Governor Fayose, because he is committing a lot of evils.
“We learnt that he has been bragging that he would re-arrest them, we dare him to do so, because we will go to court to seek redress on this gross abuse of our members’ rights.”
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via: INFORMATION NIGERIA
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