The indictment for fraud, abuse of office, and the 10 years ban placed on former minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, from holding public office by the Ekiti State government have been quashed by an Abuja High Court.
\nThe Court dismissed a suit seeking to bar the All Progressives Congress (APC) from fielding Fayemi as its candidate in the Ekiti Governorship election slated for this month.
\nIt is however not yet uhuru as an insider, an APC chieftain, Mr. Oladimeji Olakunle Olatunji,\u00a0has approached another Federal High Court, Abuja\u00a0seeking the disqualification Fayemi\u00a0from contesting the race scheduled for July 14, just 11 days away.
\nIn\u00a0the suit No:\u00a0 FHC\/ABJ\/05\/693\/18 and dated July 2, 2018, with Fayemi, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as 1st, 2nd and 3rd\u00a0defendants respectively, Olatunji is seeking an\u00a0order disqualifying the 1st defendant from contesting the governorship election for submitting false information to the 2nd and 3rd defendants as it relates to his non-resignation from the public service.
\nJustice Othman Musa, in a judgment Tuesday in Abuja, dismissed the suit instituted by the Action Peoples Party (APP) against Fayemi, APC and Ekiti State government on the ground that it was frivolous, baseless and without merit.
\nThe party (APP) had argued among others, that Fayemi’s indictment by a commission of inquiry set up by the Ekiti state government to probe his administration, and the White Paper issued by the government based on the indictment, disqualified Fayemi from holding public office by virtue of Section 182(1)(i) of the Constitution.
\nJustice Musa quashed Fayemi’s purported indictment by commission of inquiry and the White Paper on the grounds that the\u00a0\u200eprocess leading to the report and White Paper was tainted with bias as Fayemi was not accorded fair hearing.
\nThe judge noted that Section 182(1)(i) of the Constitution, on which the suit was based, was no longer in existence having been deleted in 2011 by the National Assembly through the first alteration of the 1999 Constitution.
\nJustice Musa who answered the two questions posed by the plaintiff in the negative, refused all its prayers and declared that Fayemi was eligible to contest the next Governorship election and that the APC was at liberty, under the law to field him as its candidate.
\nBesides, the judge said that by virtue of several Supreme Court decisions, mere indictment and white paper are mere administrative decisions and cannot be used to disqualify any citizen from holding public office.
\nThe Abuja high court further held that citizens can only be indicted by court of laws after fair trial adding that even if the white paper and the section 182 was not deleted, the process leading to the commission of inquiry report was tainted with bias because there was no evidence that Fayemi was invited as an accused person to defend himself from the corruption charges by the tribunal.
\nJustice Musa held that despite the fact that Fayemi was not invited as a defendant, the commission of inquiry went ahead in an absurd, bias and tainted manner to indict him in gross violation of the right of the former governor to fair hearing as enshrined in the constitution.
\nThe judge therefore quashed the purported indictment and the 10 years ban placed on Fayemi and declared that he (Fayemi) is constitutionally qualified to contest any election and hold any public office.
\nIn the new suit, the APC chieftain Mr. Oladimeji Olakunle Olatunji, approached the Federal High Court, Abuja\u00a0seeking the disqualification of Fayemi.
\nIn\u00a0the suit No:\u00a0 FHC\/ABJ\/05\/693\/18 and dated July 2, 2018, with Fayemi, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as 1st, 2nd and 3rd\u00a0defendants respectively, Olatunji is seeking an\u00a0order disqualifying the 1st defendant from contesting the governorship election for submitting false information to the 2nd and 3rd defendants as it relates to his non-resignation from the public service.
\nThis is in addition to his conviction for embezzlement and fraud by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry on the basis of which he contested the said 2nd defendant’s governorship primary election and is contesting the awaiting governorship election.
\nIt would be recalled that a former governor of the state and runner-up in the governorship primary, Engr. Segun Oni had took similar step to challenge the legality of Fayemi, who was the immediate past Minister of Mines and Steel Development, as the party\u2019s candidate in the coming election.
\nIn the \u201coriginating summons\u201d filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the immediate APC deputy national chairman, through the Segun Oni Campaign Organization, SOCO is challenging Fayemi\u2019s legitimacy partly on the grounds that he was still a minister when he contested in the party\u2019s primary.
\nAlso, Olatunji in an affidavit deposed to, averred that Fayemi, after serving as the governor of Ekiti State and after handing over to his successor, was accused of financial impropriety and embezzlement of public funds, pursuant to which the state government set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired Chief Judge of the State, Hon. Justice Silas Bamidele Oyewole, which after its sittings, deliberations and considerations of issues and evidence before it, found the Fayemi guilty of embezzlement and misapplication of public funds, indicted him and banned the 1st defendant from occupying any public office for 10 years, apart from recommending him for criminal prosecution.
\nHe\u2019s also seeking to know \u201cwhether the information which the 1st defendant gave to the 2nd and 3rd defendants part of which is that he has resigned from the public service of the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Federal Minister of Solid Minerals, Mines and Steel Development before the primary election of the 12th May, 2018\u2026\u201d.
\nHe therefore called for \u201ca declaration that the second runner up in the said 2nd defendant’s primary election (which is Adebayo Segun Oni) having scored 481 votes which is the majority of the lawful and valid votes cast at the said 2nd defendant’s 12th May, 2018 governorship primary election for the purpose of nominating\/determining the 2nd Defendant’s candidate for the 14th July, 2018 Ekiti State governorship election is the person that was validly nominated by the 2nd defendant for the said 14th July, 2018 Ekiti State governorship election\u201d.
\nThe claimant is also seeking an order directing INEC, to forward the name of the second runner up in the primary election, Adebayo Segun Oni, to INEC as the 2nd Defendant’s duly nominated candidate for the Ekiti State governorship election scheduled to hold on the 14th July, 2018, as well as an order of the court directing INEC to strike out and or delete the name of Kayode Fayemi as the candidate and replace him with the name of the second runner up in the primary election
\nOlatunji, while addressing journalists in Abuja argued that \u201cthe constitution must take its course; the party has a constitution and guidelines which the candidate of the APC, John Kayode Fayemi, in Ekiti State did not oblige to\u201d.
\n\u201cDue to this, even while in office as a sitting governor, he can still be disqualified, and whosoever that might have emerged second position in the primary election will be declared winner of the election. This is a constitutional matter, it is better to lay a good precedence as far as our democracy is concerned so that people can follow this route.
\n\u201cThe APC will definitely emerge in the forthcoming Ekiti State governorship election slated for July 14, 2018; the essence of going to court against John Kayode Fayemi is that when time comes and somebody wants to do exactly what he did he will be cautioned and that is the essence.
\n\u201cTomorrow it could be you, it could be me or somebody else, so we have to lay a good precedence today, whereby everybody will know that this is exactly what we would have done,\u00a0 because\u00a0 every other person who contested with him at the primary level resigned, such as Chief Segun Oni who resigned almost 40 days before the election took place, so how much more of a sitting minister who used the state apparatus for his own advantage, and you can’t be a judge in your own matter; it is against the rule of law.
\n\u201cSo, in view of this the man who ought to resign that refused to resign will be honourably disqualified in court; it is only the court that can do that\u201d, he stressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The indictment for fraud, abuse of office, and the 10 years ban placed on former minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, from holding public office by the Ekiti State government have been quashed by an Abuja High Court. The Court dismissed a suit seeking to bar the All Progressives Congress (APC) from fielding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}