By Leke Adeseri, South West Regional Editor & Gbenga Ariyibi
Ado Ekiti — There appears to be no end in sight to the current face-off between the 19 All Progressives Congress, APC, lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly and Governor Ayo Fayose.
Some 20 minutes after leaving a church service where the clergyman advised the governor to embrace peace by reconciling with APC lawmakers, Gov. Fayose made a live broadcast on the Ekiti State Radio and Television, ESRT, where he told Ekiti people to defend their mandate from the APC lawmakers, who he claimed were coming to invade the state to impeach him today.
But the lawmakers are insisting on going ahead with Fayose and his deputy, Dr Kolapo Olusola’s removal.
This is coming barely 48 hours after Fayose promised to dialogue with the aggrieved lawmakers.
To ensure that the APC lawmakers would not achieve their motive, the Okada riders association and the commercial transport workers operating in the state are toeing the path of the governor by telling their members to converge on the premises of the state House of Assembly today at 6 a.m and defend the mandate freely given to Fayose and his deputy during the June 21, 2014 governorship election.
During the governor’s live broadcast on the ESRT, he told the people to defend their mandate from the invading APC lawmakers and defend him against the alleged impeachment.
He urged drivers and Okada riders in particular to move out en-masse to defend his mandate, saying: “My mandate is your mandate and you must defend it.”
Okada riders, NURTW mobilise members
Barely 10 minutes after, two statements emerged on the state radio as public announcements that were being broadcast intermittently.