THE Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has cried out that he cannot get a copy of the report of Ekiti State judicial panel of inquiry that indicted him, accusing the Ekiti State government of frustrating his efforts to get the report of the panel.
Dr Fayemi, the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, accused the state government of standing in his way in his efforts to get a copy of the panel’s report, one of which recommendations of banning him from holding public office for 10 years, had been published in a white paper by the government.
Speaking through his counsel, Chief Rafiu Balogun, Fayemi alleged that the state government and its top officials were “deliberately frustrating efforts to obtain the report of the Ekiti State Panel that purportedly indicted the former Governor, more than a week after the document has been made public with the release of the White Paper.”
According to Balogun, he had applied for a certified copy of the report of the panel through a written application to the offices of the Ekiti State Attorney General and the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), as directed by the Secretary to the Commission.
His letters to the two top officials which he said were “dated January 11th, were received on January 12th, but there has been no response from the government, despite repeated calls to the offices.”
Balogun held that “the panel’s report is one of the important documents needed in the case being instituted by the former governor to challenge the outcome of the panel, which barred him and a former commissioner from holding public office for 10 years among others.”
He said when the report was released, Dr Fayemi and Mr Dapo Kolawole, a former Commissioner for Finance in the Fayemi administration also indicted in the report, briefed him to “do the needful.”
He said: “We quickly wrote to the SSG on the 11th of January, 2018 and it was received on 12th January. We also wrote to the Attorney General Ekiti State requesting for the report since he chairs the committee to review the report and advise Government on the White Paper. We gave the officials seven days to make available the CTC of the report of the commission of inquiry and other documents submitted by the commission.
“Our representative had at the various time called at the offices of the SSG and AG to follow up but he was told that the two senior government officials were not available and that he should return the visit on Monday, January 22nd. The officials were also evasive when our representative went to request for the report on Monday.
“We are not pleased with the lackadaisical attitude of the Ekiti State Government to a simple request for CTC of the Report in their custody, even when we have informed them of our readiness to pay the requisite fee for production and certification.
But the state government denied the allegation, saying the allegation was not true as, according to it, the document was in the public domain.
The government, which reacted through the Commissioner for Information, Youth and Sports Development, Mr Lanre Ogunsuyi, said “the document is a public one,” saying “that allegation itself by the lawyer and the former governor is another effort to paint the state government in bad light while they are trying to escape the consequences of their fraudulent acts while in office.”
Ogunsuyi said: “I am sure that everybody in the state, including journalists, have this document. It is in public domain. You are aware that by antecedents, Fayemi even refused to appear during the sitting of the panel. I don’t know what the lawyer is saying by alleging that government is frustrating his effort to get the document.
“I am saying now that he should come, he will have it. If he is claiming that he has come before, he should come again, we will give him the document. It is a government gazette that is obtainable under the freedom of information bill. So, he should come and have it, he will have it.”
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