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| Omirin |
The confrontation between Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose and the
state House of Assembly heightened on Wednesday with the government
sealing off a filling station belonging to the Speaker, Adewale Omirin.
The speaker’s filling station, T. Five Integrated Service, is one of the
four the government closed down in Ado-Ekiti to avert “unimaginable
fire accident with attendant fatalities.”
The government, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the
governor, Idowu Adelusi, directed all the owners of the affected filling
stations to report at the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and
Urban Development with letters of approval.
Reacting to the closure, Omirin alleged that the governor ordered the
closure of the filling station in order to intimidate and coerce him.
Omirin, a member of the All Progressives Congress and Fayose of the
Peoples Democratic Party are believed to be at loggerheads.
The speaker vowed in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Wole
Olujobi, not to “buckle under undue political pressure to abandon his
party for the PDP for selfish and pecuniary motives.”
He said that he met all the necessary environmental laws and got the necessary approval for the station.
The speaker wondered why the governor would start victimising those who did not share his political belief.
The statement quoted Omirin as saying that another assembly member,
Joseph Olugbemi, had told him that the governor had made up his mind
to close the filling station over his refusal to join the PDP.
Olugbemi is one of the six APC members that defected to the PDP on the
day Fayose was inaugurated as the new governor of the state.
Omirin recalled that he had earlier promised the governor that the
assembly would work with him in the interest of Ekiti people, to deliver
dividends of democracy.
He said, “I called the governor to confirm what the honourable member
told me about the plan to close my filling station. The governor denied
any such plan, swearing that he would not pursue any victimisation
agenda against his opponents.
“But only yesterday(Wednesday), the governor ordered the closure of the filling station, citing environmental factor.”
Omirin said he had a background of political fidelity anchored on
progressive democratic practice and so would not abandon the principle
in pursuit of selfish agenda .
According to him, the present atmosphere in the state does not call for high-handedness and persecution of opponents.
He warned that attacks on the opponents, particularly the lawmakers,
would only smear the relationship between the Executive and Legislature.