Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) as someone whose comments on national issues, especially the ones involving the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State are self interest induced, saying; “a lawyer of his standing should be concerned about his credibility and be consistent on issues, rather than speaking from both sides of his mouth just to satisfy his stomach.”
He said Falana should purge himself of his personal hatred for him (Fayose) and stop crying about over his failed attempts to govern Ekiti State, adding: “Even in his Ilawe-Ekiti polling unit, he could not convince his own people to vote for the APC during the election. Was it because he was prevented from voting by anyone?”
Falana was reported to have said that the June 21, 2014 governorship election won by Fayose was fraudulent and that the governor had no immunity against criminal prosecution.
However, speaking through his Special Assistant on Public
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “It is obvious that because of the present political expedient and the demand from his stomach, which is obviously insatiable, Falana has forgotten what he said in the interview he granted The Punch newspaper, which was published on July 15, 2014.
“Therefore, since he has allowed his memory to be taking over by ‘chop-I-chop’ political hypocrisy, it is necessary to remind him that he said categorically in July 2014 that the governorship election was not rigged.
“When he was asked by Olusola Fabiyi of The Punch newspaper that; ‘do you think the Ekiti election was actually rigged?’ Falana responded thus; ‘The election in Ekiti was not rigged. I witnessed it. I spoke to people before and after the election. Fayemi gave a good concession speech. But the APC has raised the possibility of photo-chromic ballot papers being used in favour of the PDP. I have been told by many APC
members that photo-chromic ballot papers were used. I think the
allegation is bunkum. Unless the party is ready to confront the
reality of the election it is not going to draw the vital lessons from
it. There were protest votes against the government. Instead of
questioning the credibility of the election the APC should engage in a
critical review of the verdict of the electorate.’
“When asked whether he was surprised with the outcome of the election,
Falana said; ‘…I never knew of the decision of the vital stakeholders
in the state to vote him (Fayemi) out of office. …On a critical
analysis of the political situation in Ekiti State, Fayemi is a victim
of the ideological crisis of his party, the APC. Of course, the
arrogance of some of the governor’s aides who were allowed to wield
enormous powers equally contributed to the loss of the election.’
“If in July 2014, Falana said all these and even more concerning the
election, one begins to wonder why it has always been easy for him to
make a 360 degree u-turn on national issues and one can say without
mincing words that his comments can only be dictated by the stomach
infrastructure he is either benefitting from or hoping to benefit
from.”
The governor said it was shameful that Falana has failed to realise
that his credibility was already in tatters because of his
hypocritical stance on political issues, adding that “lawyers,
especially those that have risen to the level of Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN) should not be seen as speaking only when their personal
or political interests are involved. They should be consistent.
“For instance, over ten Ekiti indigenes were murdered during the APC
government of Dr Kayode Fayemi, Falana kept silent. He also kept
silent when the future of Ekiti State was being mortgaged to frivolous
loans and deductions from workers salary were not being remitted. It
also made no meaning to Falana that democratically elected local
government chairmen and councillors were sacked and council election
was not conducted throughout the four years of APC government in Ekiti
State.
“It is, therefore, important that Falana be told in clear Yoruba
language that; ‘Falana gbo ti e’ (Falana face your own business) and he should look elsewhere to satisfy his personal political interests because Ekiti will never fall into the hands of hypocrites like him.”
