Ekiti Assembly Issues Arrest Warrant On Fayemi
Ekiti State House of Assembly yesterday issued an arrest warrant on the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi for refusing to appear before it over alleged misappropriation of over N40 billion under his administration,
The former governor, according to the assembly had been summoned on three occasions as opportunities to explain and some allegations of financial profligacy leveled against him but ignored the invitations.
Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, the Speaker , Hon Kola Oluwawole and the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon Samuel Omotoso disclosed that the minister was earlier summoned by the assembly on March 10, 2016 with a reminders on August 27 and January 30, 2017, which (he) Fayemi declined.
They said Fayemi’s action as a flagrant breach of Section 1(1) of the 1999 constitution as amended, which empowered the assembly to summon any serving or former officers of a state.
In pursuant to Section 129(1) (d) of the 1999 constitution, the House ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibahim Idris and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Wilson Inalegwu and other security agencies, including international Police (Interpol) to immediately arrest the serving Minister.
“During Governor Kayode Fayemi’s government, he paid awarded a N304 million contract for planting of flowers for urban renewal project in Ado Ekiti. Over 50% of the contract sum had been paid but there is no single flower anywhere.
“The former governor also purchased 133 vehicles for royal fathers. The vehicles were given out in August, 2013 and the contract papers were done in November. This was a clear case of misappropriation.
“He also paid N24m for the construction of Awedele Market. The money was paid to a phoney company and no construction was seen. The most disturbing was that, eight days to the expiration of his tenure, Fayemi withdrew a sum of N852m from UBEC account which he was not a signatory to and diverted to other areas we could not trace.
“The former governor also paid a sum of N115m for the construction of a new Governor’s office. But no structure was put in place as we speak. The same was witnessed in the construction of the State Pavilion, the Governor’s Lodge and the 5 kilometre road projects,
where billions were diverted. He even took N4 billion loan 4 days before he left office.
“All these needed explanations. The summon was not meant to harass
him. This is just an opportunity for him to clear his name. But should
the security agencies fail to bring him here, then we will go the
legal way, because we have the constitutional powers to summon any
former or serving chief executive”.
Omotoso added that “the assembly today at its plenary through a resolution properly moved issued a warrant of arrest against former governor Fayemi, the Minister of Solid Mineral . We directed the IGP, the CP and Interpol to commence a search for him to explain all these rapes on the State’s finances”, Omotoso said.
“The summon is not optional for the police to enforce, it is a constitutional matter, because the law of the land is supreme”.
The Speaker said the handing over note , which Fayemi had earlier cited as an excuse to allegedly dodge the summon didn’t give any clarity on the issues raised, describing the note as “vague and empty”.
