Students take to the streets, call on Fayemi to defend self against Fayose

Students from the various tertiary institutions in Ekiti State, on Monday took to the streets to protest what they said was moves by the Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to scuttle a planned judicial probe of his administration, saying it was “proper for the people of the state to know the truth about the allegations by the government of Governor Ayodele Fayose.”

The students in their protest in Ado Ekiti, alleged that Dr. Fayemi was “using the judiciary to shield himself from answering questions on allegations of corruption and we feel this is not good enough both for him as a person and as a political leader in the state.”

The students who said they represented all indigenes of Ekiti from such, and who had gathered under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS); Federation of Ekiti State Students’ Unions (FESSU), home and diaspora; had marched with their various placards from their convergence at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium to Ojumose, where they addressed newsmen.

Speaking on behalf of the students, the President FESSU, Idowu Peter, said they were “protesting endemic corruption of political office holders in Nigeria and we are demanding that the fight against corruption by the Federal Government should be across board and not sectional or restricted to only the opposition party.”

Peter said they were also calling on Dr Fayemi, who was the immediate past governor of the state, “to come to face the judicial commission of enquiry set up to probe his activities in government,” saying “he must come to defend himself against the allegation of misappropriation of the N850 million State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) funds leveled against him and others. He shouldn’t hide under a court injunction to stop the panel if indeed his hands are clean.”

Another of the students, Temitayo Alexander Owolabi, who said he is the chairman NANS, Ekiti chapter, said: ” If former Governor Fayemi knows he has no skeleton in his cupboard, we demand that he appears before the judicial commission of enquiry set up to make him answer to allegations of misappropriation of funds.

“He should not hide under the judiciary. After all, he himself signed the law of judicial commission of enquiry by the state’s House of Assembly. So, he should have the moral courage to face the commission and not run away from it.”

The Fayose-led government in Ekiti State has set up a judicial commission of inquiry to look into some activities of the immediate past government of Dr. Fayemi in the as the governor of the state; a move which Fayemi has gone to court to challenge and seek to quash.

The panel came as a result of a resolution by the state’s House of Assembly that the executive should set up such a panel, after the Assembly said it had invited Fayemi three times to come and answer questions on some issues about his government; and he shunned the Assembly, an act which led to their calling for the probe panel.