Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has said that the lawmakers of the opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress, APC, are being remotely controlled against the will of the people of Ekiti state.
The incumbent governor made the statement on Tuesday through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, while commenting on a reported protest held at the Lagos State Secretariat, Ikeja, by members of the Ekiti House of Assembly on the platform of APC.
According to Fayose, the action of the lawmakers is a “show of shame” that had confirmed that they were being “remote-controlled” from the state.
It would be recalled that the 26-member Ekiti Assembly was thrown into crisis last Monday when seven Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members sat to approve the appointment of three commissioner-nominees, 12 special advisers to the governor and chairmen of the caretaker committees of the 16 local government areas of the state.
It was reported that the PDP lawmakers sat in the absence of the Speaker, Adewale Omirin and his deputy, Adetunji Orisalade, who were in Lagos with 17 other APC lawmakers.
The following day, the state government fired all the aides to the speaker and deputy speaker.
On Thursday, the seven lawmakers purportedly impeached Messrs. Omirin and Orisalade. Dele Olugbemi and Abeni Olayinka were picked to replace them.
Meanwhile, at the Lagos protest, the impeached speaker and his deputy condemned their purported sack, saying it was an abuse of the constitution.
Fayose however, said the APC lawmakers should as well declare themselves as members of Lagos State House of Assembly II.
He said it was more shameful that the APC lawmakers were led in the protest by the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, and submitted a protest letter to Governor Babatunde Fashola.
The governor asked the APC lawmakers to return to Ekiti, and stop running from media houses in Lagos to Lagos State secretariat, saying they were elected to perform legislative duties in Ekiti and not Lagos.
“Going to the Lagos State Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja to protest on issues bordering on governance in Ekiti State is no doubt a clear demonstration that the APC lawmakers have totally sold their minds and dignity to their party’s Lagos-based political merchants,” part of the statement read.
It added: “The question is, why were they protesting in front of Lagos State secretariat, when they were elected to perform legislative duties in Ekiti? Why are they on self-exile?
“Shouldn’t they have come back to Ekiti to join Governor Ayodele Fayose to rescue the State from the financial mess the APC government of Dr Kayode Fayemi plunged it to?”
It would be recalled that the APC had raised an alarm last week that the lives of its lawmakers are in danger in Ekiti, stating that killers have returned to the state because the Nigeria Police Force is playing a partisan role in the crisis.