APC Praises Ekiti Transport Workers For Refusal To Foment Trouble

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has praised the drivers and motorcycle riders associations for refusing to obey Governor Ayodele Fayose’s inciting order to foment trouble over alleged plan by the 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers to storm the House of Assembly with thugs to impeach him. The governor had on Sunday made a live broadcast on the state media urging drivers, motorbike operators, market women and workers‎ to rise up to protect the mandate they gave him. Few minutes later, state radio and television stations ran public announcements intermittently‎ urging drivers and motorcycle operators to be on the look-out for strange faces invading the town to work for the APC lawmakers, while also urging them to mobilise to the House of Assembly to prevent the governor’s impeachment. But on Monday, the drivers and many okada riders refused to protest, saying that they would not be used as cannon fodder while the governor’s children were kept in safety and luxury abroad. In a statement, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Ekiti State, Taiwo Olatubosun, praised the transport workers for their courage and wisdom. Olatubosun said it is callous for a man to put fellow human beings in harm’s way over protection of his interest while ‎keeping his own children out of danger to enjoy safety in luxury. The statement said: “We praised the drivers and motorcycle operators for ‎their courage and wisdom. Fayose is used to protecting his own interest and keeping his children in safety while he distributes guns to the children of others to foment trouble. “The day he was first impeached in 2006, he asked his supporters to meet at Fajuyi to confront the soldiers. It is later that his supporters discovered that the governor had bolted in the booth of his car to safety while his supporters were tear-gassed with several of them wounded.” The APC spokesman said the matter at hand was not about partisanship but about the abuse of the constitution and wondered why Fayose believed he must win through violence all the time he tramples on the constitution. The statement added: “He first led thugs to sack the court and beat up a judge while court records in the Chief Judge’s office were torn. The Chief Judge’s Secretary was beaten. Now, he openly made a live broadcast in the state media inciting his supporters to an act of insurrection by disallowing the lawmakers to do their lawful duties. “Even during Sunday service in the church, Fa‎yose, to the shock of everyone, was inciting worshipers to protect the mandate they gave him through violent resistance to the lawmakers. Why must a governor choose violence as a religion? “He effectively grounded the judiciary and now it is the turn of the parliament. Nigerian democracy is on trial and the Constitution ‎of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is in chains if Fayose can single-handedly cripple these two sacred democratic institutions through violence and he appears winning all the way.” Olatubosun wondered why Fayose preferred violent option in the resolution of constitutional and democratic matters. He also asked Ekiti elders preaching peace toformer  Speaker Adewale Omirin that they must first start with Fayose on the need to embrace peace by operating within the ambit of the law instead of inciting people into violence. Olatubosun also regretted that the governor’s inciting media statement had created panic among parents who kept their wards at home for fear of attacks on their way to schools.