The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of hounding its leaders and supporters, in a bid to run the opposition out of the state.
A statement by Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said the alarm became imperative in the face of persistent victimisation of APC members, arrested on trumped-up charges that saw them end up in jail.
He was reacting to the Sunday night arrest of a former Ekiti chairman of Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria, Mr. Rotimi Olambiwonnu (aka) Mentilo, who was later arraigned before an Ado Ekiti Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Olambiwonnu was accused of complicity in the murder of a former Ekiti State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Omolafe Aderiye.
Magistrate Idowu Aiyenimon has adjourned the matter till Friday, following an objection by the Defence Counsel, Niran Owoseni, that his client was brought to the court when the case had been concluded.
Aderiye, a staunch supporter of the governor was killed on September 25, 2014 in Ijigbo area of the State capital, Ado Ekiti.
The Police had earlier charged four persons to court after arresting and questioning 19 persons in respect of the killing to determine their level of culpability.
The Ekiti Police Command later on November 24 paraded a former coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress in the state, Prince Adeniyi Adedipe a.k.a Apase, over the same murder case.
Speaking with newsmen after the court session, Owoseni said the action of the government was an attempt to incarcerate his client and put him out of circulation.
Olatubosun said, “Governor Fayose at his inauguration ceremony last October publicly declared a one-minute silence for the death of APC in the state, promising to send the party members out of town.
“True to his declaration, no fewer than 10 leaders of our party have been hounded out of town while two are in jail over trumped-up charges even as teachers that were perceived as having sympathy for APC were transferred to the remote areas of the state while the governor is still after Fayemi’s officials to seize their cars even when the matter is in court.
“This is the same way he wants to eject them from their housing estate homes against legal agreement in the purchase of their houses.
“His first victim was our Chairman, Chief Jide Awe, who the governor implicated in the murder of Mrs Juliana Jeje and Ayo Jeje in Erinjiyan-Ekiti, even when it was proven that Awe was out of the town when violence broke out among party rivals that claimed the lives of the victims,” he said.
But the governor while speaking at the office Department of State Services in Ado Ekiti on Monday advised the opposition to stop politicising kidnapping and other criminal acts.
He said, “It is a collective fight. We have to fight this together, so that all of us can sleep with two eyes closed.”
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