Ekiti State Governor-elect Ayodele Fayose should be arrested and prosecuted, says the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This came following allegations that the Fayose led the gang of thugs who beat up a judge and later attacked and burnt down the secretariat of APC in the state.
A judge had been assaulted at the State High Court on Thursday after hoodlums stormed the court premises to ensure there was no sitting on the day, over the eligibility of Fayose to contest the governorship election he won in the state. A similar attack had happened at the court, with several litigants, who are members of the E11, the group that challenged Fayose’s eligibilty to contest governorship election in the state, injured.
National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement on Friday disclosed the party’s position on the issue, saying Fayose should be arrested by the police over his role in the attack, as he has not been sworn in as governor, and therefore enjoys no immunity at the moment.
According to the party, the penalty for any type of attack on a judge anywhere in the world, is a jail term to deter other violence-minded people from taking up such act; “the case of the thuggish Fayose should not be different.”
While it want Fayosse arrested, APC wants it as soon as possible “to prevent anarchists and crude individuals from taking the laws into their hands and tampering with the administration of justice, especially because the attack on Justice John Adeyeye came a few days after pro-Fayose and pro-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thugs invaded a courtroom in the state and beat up litigants, among others.”
“According to published reports which have yet to be refuted, police personnel stood by while litigants, lawyers and other citizens were being mauled by rabid PDP thugs in the first attack, and again seemed powerless as Justice Adeyeye was being manhandled and his suit torn until the police commissioner arrived at the scene. If this is not an act of collusion, then it is a case of unacceptable gross incompetence, for which those security agents must be brought to book.
“If the police are no longer willing and able to carry out their constitutional duties of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry, then anarchy looms,” the party warned.
APC commended the Ekiti State Police Commissioner, Taiwo Lakanu, for rushing to the scene of the attack to help restore order after the hoodlums had beaten up on Thursday, but condemned the overall role of the police in the attacks.
