Ekiti panel can’t continue sitting in face of suit – Fayemi

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, yesterday said the pendency of a suit instituted by the minister challenging the legality and constitutionality of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry probing his administration when he was the governor of Ekiti state is the reason why he cannot appear before it.

In a letter by the minister’s lawyer, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, to the chairman of the commission, Justice Silas Bamidele Oyewole (rtd), he warned that the decision of the panel to go ahead with the sitting and summoning his client to appear before it in spite of the pendency of the suit no HAD/57/2017 at the AdoEkiti High Court, amounted to contempt of court.

The letter made available to journalists via e-mail, by the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Mr Yinka Oyebode, said “In the light of the pending case including our client’s motion for interlocutory injunction, your lordship is under clear duty to stay action on the activities of your commission until the pending case is determined.

“We hope in the light of the forgoing, it will not be rendered necessary for our client to test the efficacy of the law against your commission, which definitely will be an embarrassment to your commission. We are sending a copy of this letter to the court before which the case is pending in Ado-Ekiti.”