TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the arrest and prosecution of Ekiti state governor-elect Ayodele Fayose for allegedly leading a band of thugs to beat up a judge and inciting his supporters to attack and burn down the opposition’s secretariat in the state.

On behalf of APC, its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, argued that since Fayose did not have immunity from arrest and prosecution, he should be arrested for the alleged attack.

“Every time a judge had been attacked anywhere in the world, the attackers have been jailed to serve as a deterrent to others who may want to take the laws into their hands. The case of the thuggish Fayose should not be different,” he said.

Mohammed added that it was necessary to act fast in order to prevent anarchists and “crude individuals” from taking the law into their own hands and tampering with the administration of justice, alleging that “the attack on Justice John Adeyeye came a few days after pro-Fayose and pro-PDP thugs invaded a court room in the state and beat up litigants, among others.”

The party noted that the message being sent out by the PDP was its readiness to “resort to self-help to capture and govern any state, especially in the southwest where the PDP’s desperation has forced it to put forward reprobates as governorship candidates”.

”Even though Mr Fayose has not assumed office, he has succeeded in taking Ekiti state back to Egypt within a few months of his election. Not only are judges being attacked, the kind of killings and chaos that characterised his first time in charge of the state have already started. He is struggling hard to ensure that Ekiti is no longer in the league of states where disputes are settled in courts, instead of on the streets, and judges preside in the administration of justice,” it said.

”The disgusting attacks on the administration of justice in Ekiti have shown the truism in the aphorism ‘show me your friends and I will tell you who you are’. Nigerians now know the company the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan keep and what the party and the president truly are. The Fayose that is leading thugs to attack a Judge in Ekiti is the same man that President Goodluck Jonathan, as the leader of the PDP, heartily campaigned for. He is the same man who has called himself the overall leader of the PDP in the southwest. He is the same man who has gone on television to justify the court attack. Indeed, a leopard really cannot change its spots.”

APC commended Ekiti state commissioner of police, Taiwo Lakanu, for “rushing to the venue to help restore order after the judge had been beaten up Thursday,” it described the overall role of the police in the two attacks as “shameful”.

”According to published reports which have yet to be refuted, police personnel stood by while litigants, lawyers and other citizens were being mauled by rabid PDP thugs in the first attack, and again seemed powerless as Justice Adeyeye was being manhandled and his suit torn until the police commissioner arrived at the scene.

“If this is not an act of collusion, then it is a case of unacceptable gross incompetence for which those security agents must be brought to book. If the police are no longer willing and able to carry out their constitutional duties of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry, then anarchy looms.”

The party further urged Nigerians to brace up for a “hellish time” in the hands of the PDP from now until the 2015 general election.

”During his recent trip to New York, President Jonathan assured the international community that next year’s elections will be conducted in accordance with global best practices. Well, it is now clear that the president’s assurances are not worth the paper on which they were written, going by the actions of his party members. Global best practices do not include beating up judges, lawyers and litigants,” it said.

”How can elections be free, fair and transparent in a lawless society? How can elections be credible when policemen are taking sides with the ruling party? How can elections be violence-free when candidates being put forward by the ruling party are ready to engage in jungle justice? We can only call on the international community to maintain a keen interest in events in Nigeria in the days and weeks ahead, if only to show the ruling PDP for what it truly is: an enclave of anarchists and dead-enders.”