By Banji Ayoola
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Peter Ayodele Fayose, has accused the Governor-elect, Dr. John Olukayode Fayemi of being on a vendetta mission, as he challenged him to go ahead immediately with the threatened probe of his administration in the last four years.
The Governor said: “It is obvious that he will be consumed in his vendetta mission and rather than grandstanding, Fayemi should first seek legitimacy for his stolen mandate.”
“He (Fayemi) should stop living in the world where threat of probe scares people because we in the government of Fayose are not afraid of victimisation and vendetta that Fayemi is obviously coming with,” he added.
He described Fayemi as a beneficiary of a stolen mandate who is afraid to even come to the open to celebrate his false victory.
Fayose’s words: “Even yesterday (Wednesday) when he went to collect the certificate of the mandate that was snatched and handed to him by the powers that be in Abuja, he had to be protected by police helicopter and hundreds of armed policemen. One wonders how he is going to rule the people they forced him on.
“If Fayemi is on vendetta mission, which is obvious that he is, he will first destroy himself because like Ekiti and its people survived him during his first tenure, the people will outlive him this time too.”
Fayemi, he said, should begin probe of his government now instead of waiting till October 16 that he will be sworn in.
The Governor advised the Governor-elect to seek legitimacy for his election first rather than embarking on a vendetta mission that would consume him.
Fayose through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said this in his reaction to Fayemi’s threat.
Fayemi, had told State House correspondents on Thursday in Abuja, after he had presented his certificate of return to President Muhammadu Buhari, that his administration would investigate why the administration of Fayose was unable to pay workers’ salaries as and when due.
He, however, stressed that it would be wrong to conclude that the probe would be targeted at Fayose as an individual.
According to ICiR, the Governor-elect said: “It is not about probing Fayose, probing Eleka etc. It is about not repeating the mistakes of the past and giving our people good government. So, we will also involve in looking at what transpired in the last four years,” Fayemi said.
“l think we need to remove this election from personalities. This was an election that we fought on issues and it will be irresponsible on my part to come here and say that we will not examine what transpired in the last four years in the manner of government.
“What was received in Ekiti State and the expenditures in that period? Why were we not able to pay salaries in the state? These issues should be examined in the interest of good governance.”
Fayemi said he expects the outgoing officials of the state to cooperate with him when the process of looking into the state’s records commences.
On the allegations of vote buying by the All Progressives Congress (APC), he said there was nothing like that, adding that anyone who has concrete evidence should forward it to the appropriate authorities.
“I haven’t seen any substantive evidence of allegations of vote-buying and intimidation. In the place where l voted, there was no vote buying anywhere,” Fayemi said.
“As far as our party is concerned, we did not engage in that, it is not our style. We won the election fair and square and it was an election that we fought on issues and not on the basis of any vote-buying.
“So, whoever has any evidence of that should present it to an independently verifiable audience.”
His denial of APC’s involvement in vote-buying was contrary to the comments by former Senator Ayo Arise, an APC chieftain in Ekiti State, who admitted that the party actually paid money to voters on the day of election.
Arise, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television, argued that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) started the vote-buying first, and so the APC could not afford to “sit back” and risk being “bought out” of the election.
