I won’t appear before judicial panel, says Fayemi

• Ekiti PDP adopts Fayose’s deputy as guber candidate in 2018

Former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has disclosed that he will not appear before the judicial commission of inquiry established by Governor Ayodele Fayose to probe him.

Fayemi stated this at the commission’s sitting yesterday through his counsel, Rafiu Balogun, who said he was entering a “conditional appearance for his client.

He explained that Fayemi, who is the Minister of Mines and Steel Development received the summons, but would not appear in view of the circumstances that predated the constitution of the panel.

Balogun sought to make an oral application, but was advised by the commission’s Chairman, Justice Silas Oyewole, to make a formal application in line with the rules of the panel.

He ordered him to file an application on September 11, excusing the former governor from appearing before the commission. The chairman also ordered the Commissioner for Finance, in Fayemi’s administration, Mr. Dapo Kolawole, to appear before it on September 11.

This was after Balogun had prayed for an adjournment for Kolawole to give evidence yesterday, adding that the ex-commissioner was not properly served. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state yesterday adopted the Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola,as its consensus candidate for the governorship poll in 2018.

The adoption came barely 24 hours after Governor Ayodele Fayose said that he was waiting for God to choose his successor. The decision to adopt him was reached at the party’s stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House, Ado Ekiti.

Olusola, from Ekiti South Senatorial District, is a professor of Building Technology from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. The meeting was attended by 177 councilors, 177 ward chairmen, 16 local council chairmen and the PDP chairmen from 16 councils.

Others who attended were members of the state executive council, members of the state House of Assembly, serving and former members of the PDP State Working Committee and a former deputy governor.

The communiqué said the decision was reached “after due consultation, without prejudice to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).”

The state Chairman of the PDP, Gboyega Oguntuase, promised that the party organ would abide by the decision. He, however, said the adoption would not preclude any interested member from contesting in the upcoming transparent primaries.