PDP Members Resort to Prayers for Fayose’s Survival, Impeachment

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday held a prayer session for Governor Ayodele Fayose to survive the impeachment onslaught against him by the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers.

The prayer session was held at the secretariat road in Ado Ekiti, where members from all the 16 local government areas had gathered.

They prayed that God should intervene and save Fayose from his current political travail.

The PDP members, who were led by the caretaker chairmen of the local government, were of the view that only God can display his supremacy at this trying period and shame Fayose’s traducers.

Meanwhile,  a journalist with The Punch newspapers, Kamarudeen Ogundele, who was monitoring the political  situation in the state was Wednesday attacked by suspected party thugs along bank road in Ado Ekiti metropolis.

Ogundele, who was beaten and his T-shirt torn to shreds, sustained bodily injuries in the hands of the suspected goons, who accused him of taking them pictures where they were gathered and monitoring the situation.

Ogundele, while recounting his ordeal said: “After taking the pictures, these thugs just charged at me and started beating me. They tore my clothes and threatened to smash my windscreen. It was one of the policemen who asked me to run for my dear life, else, they would have killed me,” he said.

Governor Fayose, who later learnt about the incident, had condemned the act, saying his administration would continue to protect the journalists in the state in the course of performing their statutory duties.

However, the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Idowu Faleye, yesterday said the insistence of the 19 APC to impeach  Fayose would definitely affect their political future in the state.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti, Faleye, who pleaded with the lawmakers to think of their political future, said whatever they do would definitely have a backlash on their political relevance in the state in the future.

The PDP chairman urged the lawmakers to remember that as legislators they should be guided by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, saying the Federal High Court had ordered all parties to maintain status quo ante bellum and that such should be respected.

“They should not take the PDP peace moves as an act of cowardice, as any attempt made by these disgruntled lawmakers,  shall be met with forces by the people of Ekiti State that freely gave their votes to ensure victory of Mr. Governor.

“The lawmakers should come to terms  with the reality that their tenure would end by Thursday   June 4, 2015 , and therefore they should desist from all their evil and devilish plan targeting at impeaching a popular and acceptable people’s governor , Mr. Peter Ayodele.

“They should realise that their recalcitrant attitude will lead them into political oblivion and eternal destruction, which will tell on their generation yet unborn,” Faleye said.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikere Ekiti Branch, has urged all political gladiators in the impeachment crisis rocking Ekiti State to embrace peace and avoid any action that could throw the state into chaos.

The body stressed that the existing peace being enjoyed in the state should not be truncated by bitter struggle for power the impeachment crisis has unleashed.

Branch Chairman, Bunmi Olugbade, who spoke on the development  yesterday said the issue of impeachment  is no longer popular in Nigeria because it has been bastardised by politicians in a bid to settle scores with their opponents.

“We want to advise that they should not put their names in the black book of Ekiti State more so when elders have extended the olive branch to them, which they rejected.

“We should all learn a lesson from Justice John Fabiyi who said in his judgment in the case of APC versus Fayose and others that it is only a dog that will get lost in the forest that will not listen to the whistle of the hunter.

“They should see themselves as partners in progress in order to achieve a lasting peace in Ekiti State and electorate enjoy dividends of democracy.”