By; Sunday Ode, Abuja.
Amid calls by some interest groups on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare state of emergency on Rivers State to halt alleged political violence in the state, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, said the suggestions were mere ranting.
The Ekiti governor said pointedly while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that State of Emergency would not work in Rivers and his state, where he claimed some persons were pressuring the Federal Government to impose same rule.
Asked to comment on possibles declaration of state of emergency in Rivers, Fayose said: “They have been insinuating that too in Ekiti. We have been waiting for them. Power has gone beyond the leaders; power has gone back to the people.
“There are certain things leaders will do today, you will eat it tomorrow. You want to declare state of emergency, declare it and we will tell you that the state of emergency will not work too. This country belongs to all of us.”
On the suspended rerun legislative elections in Rivers, Fayose condemned the alleged magnitude of violence that characterised the excercise, stating also that the military had no role in the conduct of elections.
“I want to condemn the election in Rivers State. I want to condemn the militarization. Like I said to some people, if in Ekiti election nobody was slapped, nobody died, the person defeated congratulated the winner, do we now call this Rivers election Rivers of Bloodgate?
“Because for a peaceful election in Ekiti and this in Rivers, the military has got no business in our election.
“Now, I want to say that if you watch the trend, PDP has always won all the elections after the annulment. Which means what happened in Rivers is just a service of ego of some individuals who believe they have Nigeria in their pockets, they can call the president at will to deploy the military and its unfortunate that somebody would allow the military to kill his own people.”
Governor Fayose who is one of the most ardent critics of Buhari and his administration also described the detention of some Ekiti lawmakers by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “rascality of the agency of government”
He said: “And for the people detained in EFCC, it shows the rascality of the agency of government, for the federal government to look away and allow innocent Nigerians’ rights to be taken away. I condemn it.”
