THE Ekiti State House of Assembly has issued a warrant of arrest on the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
The Assembly at its sitting on Tuesday resolved that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris; the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu and other security agents of the country should ensure the appearance of the former governor before the Assembly “in accordance with Section 129 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Majority of the members at the sitting had argued in favour of the issuing of the warrant following their claims that he had refused to honour three invitations they said they had sent to him on issues of alleged “misappropriation of funds, contract-splitting, diversion of local government funds, obtaining loans without due process” and others.
They claimed that the invitations were to give him “an opportunity to come an defend himself against the various allegations,” and explained that “we are hereby compelled to exercise the powers given to the House of Assembly by the constitution by issuing a warrant of his arrest.”
The house lamented that since March 10, 2016, the Assembly had been extending invitations to the former governor and that they were compelled to warn, at their last plenary, that a warrant of arrest of Dr Fayemi would be issued.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Segun Adewumi, Chairman of the Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso and many other members of the house contributed to the debate before the Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, called for a motion, which was moved by the Leader of Business of the House, Mr. Olatunji Akinyele, moved a motion that the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police and other security agencies should arrest Dr Fayemi and bring him to the Assembly to answer questions on the issues they had raised. The motion was unanimously passed by the members and the order was issued.
Addressing newsmen after the sitting, Dr Omotosho explained that they were not probing Fayemi but that “as people saddled with the responsibility of oversight, we found that Ekiti money is missing and we need to know where it has gone to.”
Omotosho said: “Fayemi not under probe. Money of Ekiti State is missing. We want him, as a former governor, to come and answer questions on discoveries about missing funds of Ekiti State. As a former governor, we want him to come and answer questions on the missing and misapplied funds. He’s not under probe.”
On a response by Dr Fayemi that he had all the answers they were seeking in his handover note and they they should read it and take what they wanted, the Speaker, who reacted on that said the note did not answer the questions they were seeking answers to.
According to him, “yes we have a copy of the handover notes. But it is vague and empty. The last paragraph of the handover note even said if we are not satisfied, we should invite him. And that’s what we did. We started inviting him since last year March but he has refused to honour our invitation. ”
On the possibility that they may not receive the cooperation of security agencies on the move, Omotoso said “the EFCC and the law enforcers are creations of the law. For them, what we have done is no more optional because it is in the law. It is what the constitution says and we expect them to respect it. If they refuse after we duly communicate them, we will take the proper legal actions.”
They said their first invitation was in March 10, 2016. He refused to Honour the invitation. We moved on by writing a petition to the EFCC. It was submitted in Abuja but the EFCC did nothing about the petition. But because we saw that we owe it a duty to be accountable to the people of Ekiti State. We sent another invitation on November 29, 2016.
