Akande cautions against division in party
Stop chasing shadows, APC tells those seeking Fayemi’s disqualification
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked those seeking to disqualify Kayode Fayemi to stop chasing shadows.
This followed a suit by the All People’s Party (APP) at a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to stop him from contesting the July 14 governorship poll.
The Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Taiwo Olatunbosun, told the litigants that it would amount to a wasteful move to approach a lower court to upturn the ruling of the Supreme Court. He explained that similar cases had been settled as precedents in election qualification disputes.
According to the APC, the litigants should stop engaging in the ‘wasteful move,’ because the Supreme Court had since settled Fayemi’s eligibility.
Olatunbosun asked the opposition to allow the governorship candidate to settle down to begin the process of reconstructing Ekiti State.
The APP had alleged that a judicial panel of inquiry set up by Governor Ayodele Fayose indicted Fayemi.
The Minister of Solid Minerals had gone to court seeking the disbandment of the panel on grounds of alleged partisanship of its members.
He argued that members of the panel were Fayose’s appointees, adding that he could not be an accuser and a judge in his own case.
The publicity secretary said APP’S application was being tele-guided by “unseen hands” to frustrate Fayemi from contesting the election.
Olatunbosun said: “It will amount to futility to file this matter before a lower court after the Supreme Court had ruled in similar cases involving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar versus the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“There was also the case of former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State ver- sus Senator Kwakwanso.”
He explained that in the suits, the Supreme Court ruled that no White Paper, or indictment by any tribunal or commission, except the courts, could bar people from contesting election. “We will not be troubled by this needless distraction because our party’s development blue print would be sold across the state.
Meanwhile, a former National Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande, has cautioned that the recent parallel congresses in some states could affect the APC’S fortunes in the 2019 general elections.
Akande, a former governor of Osun State, made the remarks in Ilorin, Kwara State. Rabiu