The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described Governor Ayodele Fayose’s call on the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to arrest the party’s Chairman, Olajide Awe, as a deliberate plot to distract the attention of Ekiti people from various criminal allegations against the governor as he “battles credibility crisis occasioned by EFCC dragnet that has exposed him as unworthy leader”. Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement on Sunday in Ado-Ekiti that the party would have kept quiet over the governor’s call, but decided to react for the purpose of the innocent public who had become victims of Fayose’s “unconscionable mischief” to get away with his many misdeeds.

Arguing that several of APC members listed for arrest were victims of trumped-up charges to take them out of circulation, Olatunbosun said of interest was Awe, who was not in his town on the day that violence that led to the death one man erupted.

“This is the same way Sola Adenijo, Olanbiwonnu Metilo, Niyi Adedipe and several others were implicated over Omolafe Aderiye’s murder and they are still in jail over offences they knew nothing about just because Fayose had the support of President Goodluck Jonathan’s lawless administration to brutalise the opposition in Ekiti State.

“The personal assistant to the late Omolafe, Gbolahan Okeowo, had since approached the court, swearing to an affidavit that he was forced by Fayose’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ajayi Owoseni; and media aide, Lere Olayinka, to implicate the innocent men in the murder of his boss,” Olatunbosun explained.

He urged the governor to disband his alleged killer squad and submit members for prosecution over alleged crimes they committed. Berating the governor for the hasty manner he urged the police to arrest APC members, Olatunbosun said his action could not be unconnected with reports that he was manipulating other murder cases involving him in courts to get a clean bill from all murder allegations in order to justify trials of APC members over false accusation of murder.

The APC’s spokesman reminded Fayose that all the cases he listed in his letter to the IGP were already in court, while some of the accused had been granted bail.

Accusing the governor of mischief to cover his tracks, Olatunbosun said: “It is evidently clear that Fayose is trying to cover something, but we are assuring him that no matter how much he tries, the long arms of the law will catch up with him and his team of criminals.

“He is jittery and afraid of his pending doom resulting from his alleged involvement in serial killings across the state.

“Fayose is looking for cheap distraction now that APC is asking for prosecution of his partners in crime, particularly the criminals in his government.

“We also wish to remind Fayose that it is high time he handed over for prosecution, his thugs quartered in the government house on whom many petitions have been written for shooting and maiming members of the opposition.

“The governor should note that it is not going to be business as usual as he cannot cow or blackmail the Nigeria police after he cowed the judiciary and legislative arms of government to submission in the state with the active connivance of the last PDP-led Federal Government.” VANGUARD