Governor Fayose Can Be Arrested For Rigging His Election?

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called for the arrest of the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, saying this is possible because the governor rigged the June 21, 2014 Ekiti governorship election.

A statement by Falana’s organisation, Value and Integrity Group, on Thursday, said Fayose should be tried for the ‘political malfeasance that characterised the Ekiti governorship election’.

The statement said, “Having consistently demanded the prosecution of all the wicked criminals who shared in the looting of the funds meant for the procurement of arms, Mr. Falana has called for the arrest and trial of Mr. Ayodele Fayose and his cohorts over the N4.8bn deployed to perpetrate the grave electoral malfeasance that characterised the last Ekiti State governorship election.”

The statement which was signed by the coordinator of the group, Shina Odugbemi, continued:

“In particular, Mr. Falana stated that Mr. Fayose should be tried since he was a candidate and not a governor when the serious electoral offences were committed by him. On his contention that the governor’s immunity does not cover his impunity, Mr. Falana cited several decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

“With respect to fresh facts which have established that the election was marred by monumental fraud, Mr. Falana has opined that the Supreme Court could be approached by the APC to review its judgment on the endorsement of the election of Mr. Fayose since it is trite law that any judgment obtained by fraud is liable to be set aside.”

Falana added, “However, in recent time, earth-shaking revelations have been credited to those who took part in the illegal use of armed soldiers to manipulate the election in favour of Mr. Fayose.

“When the revelations of Captain Sagir Koli who recorded the conversation of the electoral bandits, including the altercation between General Aliyu Momoh and Mr. Fayose were published last year, there were denials by the dramatis personel.”