 |
| Segun Oni |
by: Toba Suleiman
Ahead of today’s ruling on the suit filed at the Supreme
Court by former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Segun Oni, on the 2007
governorship election, anxiety has gripped residents of the state over possible
break down of law and order in the state.
Already, leaders of both parties have shifted their base to
Abuja, to witness the outcome of the verdict, as efforts to extract comments
from them proved abortive.
Besides, at the secretariats of both parties in Ado-Ekiti,
there was apparently nobody or official to attend to the journalists over the
ruling.
Oni, whose election into the office in the April 2007
governorship election was truncated by the verdict of the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin, Kwara
State, on October 15, 2010, is currently
at the Supreme Court, to ‘reclaim his mandate’, from the incumbent governor, Dr
Kayode Fayemi.
The former governor subsequently approached the Supreme
Court, having lost out at the Appeal Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti last year.
At the Appeal Court, Oni sought the reversal of his removal
from office, saying the judgment was in flagrant violation of the rule of law,
despite the fact that the court struck out the case, on the basis that it
cannot reverse itself.
Oni is seeking an order at the Supreme Court to set aside
the decision of the Appeal Court delivered on February 27, 2012, and also to
set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Ilorin delivered on October
15, 2010, nullifying the election of the first appellant as the governor of the
state.
He is also seeking an order directing a fresh panel of the
Court of Appeal to hear and determine the aforesaid appeal in the above prayer.
Oni is also seeking an order directing the Speaker of the
state House of Assembly to take over the governance of the state pending the
hearing and determination of the appeal.
While commenting on the preparations of the state police
command to meet today’s challenges, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sotonye
Wakama, said the leaders of the party had been mandated to caution their
supporters to remain calm before, during and after the judgment.
Wakama, who spoke through the command’s Public Relations
Officer (PRO), Mr. Victor Babayemi, said: “We are monitoring the situation very
closely.
“We summoned all the leaders of the political parties on
Tuesday, and it was agreed that they will talk to their supporters and party
members in view of today’s judgement to ensure that there is peace in the
state.
“Our Intelligence Unit had been sent out to gather
information from the public and we have also deployed our men to all strategic
positions across the state to forestall breakdown of law and order that may
arise as a result of the judgement.
“So, we don’t foresee crisis before, during and after the
judgment.”
Responding to the pending court judgement, the Chairman of
state chapter of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Jide Awe, who assured
the police that his party members would not foment trouble, said his members
did not take laws into their hands, even at a time when situations were more
serious.
Awe stated that the party had avowed confidence in the
judiciary and would not involve the action that would desecrate the temple of
justice, just as he enthused that the party would be victorious in the end.
However, Oni had maintained that the suit was not intended
to ridicule the judiciary but to expose alleged bias in the judgement that
ousted him from office. He believed that he would be vindicated in the end with
the recent judicial step he had taken.
No comments:
Post a Comment