How we wrongly sacked Fayose – Former lawmaker By: RAPHAEL ADEYANJU June 7, 2014.


Barrister Gbadebo Ibuoye was a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly that impeached former Governor Ayodele Fayose. He is today a frontline member of the Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation (AFCO).

In this interview with RAPHAEL ADEYANJU, he explains why the Assembly impeached the former governor and the implication of that impeachment on Fayose’s present gubernatorial ambition.

The governorship candidate of your party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has been going round various communities in the state, canvassing votes. How bright is his chance in the coming election?

His chances are very bright. Fayose will win the election with a wide margin. He is going to repeat the spectacular feat he performed in 2003 when he sent the Otunba Niyi Adebayo-led Alliance for Democracy (AD) government parking. In a free and fair election, Fayose is the favourite of the Ekiti electorate.

The response to his campaign rally is overwhelming, though not surprising. If you can remember the reaction of the people on the day he was declared candidate of our party – the jubilant crowd that trooped to celebrate his victory – it is a clear evidence of the fact that Fayose is actually the man of the people. On the day he returned from Abuja where he had gone to obtain the party’s flag, people from of all walks of life – all the way from Ikere Ekiti to Ado Ekiti – trooped out to welcome their beloved one. Since we started the campaign, at every village, town we visited it has been a huge crowd turning out to listen to our campaign messages.

You were a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly that impeached the former governor on October 16, 2006 and now you are one of his
ardent supporters. Why the sudden change of mind?

Well, that impeachment was planned and executed by external forces. Most of us, members of the House that signed the impeachment letter were unwilling agents. The whole thing was a conspiracy between some interest groups and some powerful individuals who were hell bent on
removing the former governor. Why did they take us to Lagos for a whole month? Is Ekiti Assembly in Lagos?
The first night I got to Lagos, five of us were put in a room – me, Chief Aderemi and three others. The president of our cell was a Yahoo-Yahoo suspect. When we were taken to Lagos, I was only five days out of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife, where I had been admitted for five weeks. This is to show you that the whole process was abnormal.

Do you mean that Fayose was not properly impeached?

He was not properly impeached; the impeachment was based on nothing. The Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Hon. Justice Kayode Bamisile, constitutionally set up a committee to look into the impeachment charges and the committee found no fault in Fayose, but the then Speaker of
the House, late Hon. Friday Aderemi, got a judge, in person of Hon. Jide Aladejana to act as the chief judge. It was the usurper that constituted an illegal committee that got Fayose impeached. Those behind the whole saga have caused Ekiti State a lot of injuries. These elements are at it again and the people are ready to resist them.

What injuries are you talking about?

Let me start with our party, the PDP. Immediately Fayose was removed, the PDP was in disarray and the opposition party, the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) became louder. It took the return of Fayose to reawaken the party. He has brought all the old brigades that left the party back to the fold.
What has the state gained from the impeachment? It gained a state of emergency which produced a sole administrator from Ogun State while all the democratic structures were dismantled. Not even in the North eastern part of the country with the Boko Haram scourge has such happened. We gained political instability. Aderemi became a two-day governor; Tope Ademiluyi a three-month governor. We gained notoriety; we gained a rerun election; we gained endless litigation, and adiscredited judiciary. Justice Ayo Salami became a casualty of the whole crisis.

Don’t you think that the impeachment may affect Fayose’s competence to contest this election?

No, it will not. Fayose is competent to contest the election. Remember that Senator Iyiola Omisore was impeached as the deputy governor of Osun State. He contested election into the Senate and won and when his opponents raised the issue of impeachment, they were told by a
competent law court that impeachment is purely an administrative matter and not a criminal case.
Besides, the House of Assembly is neither a tribunal nor a law court that can indict or convict anybody for any criminal case. The law is very clear on the reason you can disqualify a candidate for the position of a governor in Nigeria; such a person must have been convicted by a
competent law court for a criminal case. It can also happen on the ground of insanity; that is, if it has been truly certified that a candidate is not of a sound mind.Now, I want to ask you a question. Why do you think Governor Kayode Fayemi has been going all over Ekiti? He and his wife have been going from village to village, asking for votes. If they knew Fayose is not competent to contest the election, they would have gone to court before now to stop him. Let me also remind you that Fayose had contested election into the Senate after the purported impeachment.

The other time you were speaking, you accused some powerful elements as being behind the Ekiti political crisis. Can you mention names?

Yes, why not! There is this mischievous group called E-Eleven; they masterminded the whole charade. Senator Babafemi Ojudu and other members of the group were with us throughout the time we were detained in Lagos; they mounted pressure on our people to impeach Fayose, promising that our names would be written in gold in a hall of fame. That was how the legislators shot themselves in the legs as they paved way for Ojudu and his co- travellers to realise their political ambition. Ojudu is now a senator. The E-Eleven claimed that they are non-partisan,and that they are only committed to good governance in Ekiti State. Do you agree? What this group has not done is to register a political party. All the activities of the members have been geared towards achieving one aim – to capture the political power in the state. When they started their
devious campaign against Fayose in 2006, Ekiti people were taken in by their pretentious patriotic fervour, but everybody has seen them for
what they are now. They are active members of the All Progressive Congress (APC). You see, they have been boasting of producing two
governors. Chief Segun Oni, Governor Kayode Fayemi and Senator Ojudu are members of this group. Oni was planted in the PDP, while Fayemi
was planted in the APC. It worked out well for them when Oni became the governor and after he has completed his assignment, he is now back in the APC. These people are anti-Ekiti and highly mischievous.

Don’t you think these are strong words?

Not too strong. The truth is that some of the members of the E- Eleven, even before the group became this notorious, have done nothing other than cause evil for Ekiti State. People like Senator Ojudu were the ones who waged war against Otunba Adebayo when he was governor;
they waged war against Fayose and when Oni became governor, the same elements in the E-Eleven waged war against him, forgetting that they were instrumental to an agreement between Fayemi and Oni that whoever emerged as governor between the duo would be supported. Ekiti people must begin to ask these characters what happened to the ‘Head or Tail’ agreement entered into between Oni and Fayemi. Why did they look the other side when Fayose was campaigning for Fayemi against Oni, another member of the group, in 2009? Why didn’t they raise all the issues they are now raising then? Does it mean that it was when Fayose is not working for the APC that they suddenly remembered that he is a
bad boy?

How would you react to the information that the group has threatened to sue the Director General of AFCO, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, over a statement that the E-Eleven had defrauded the state in the management of the state-owned Fountain Hotels?


I think Anisulowo has responded that the PDP’s is not afraid to confront the group in any court of law over the statement. Can you categorically affirm that the Fountain Hotel was leased to the E-Eleven group? I cannot state the real management of the hotel; I don’t know the name of the company used and those hiding behind it. I can only recall that at a point in time, the Oni-led PDP government took the management of the hotel
to court over non- remittance of funds into the state coffers. I don’t know if the situation has been reversed now.
Anyway, after the exit of the outgoing Governor Fayemi from the office and the incoming Fayose assumes office, there will no longer be any cover up because Fayose will ask whoever is managing the hotel to account for every kobo belonging to the state. Incidentally, it was the same Fayose that built the hotel when he was the governor.