Fayose led thugs to beat judges, Ekiti state Chief Judge tells NJC

The Chief Judge of Ekiti state, Justice
Daramola Ayodeji, has petitioned the National
Judicial Council, NJC, and the Ekiti state
police commissioner over
the Thursday September 25th Ekiti state
tribunal sitting disruption, accusing the Ekiti
state Governor-elect, Ayo Fayose of
complicity in the attack on judges and court
workers in the state last week.
In the petition entitled ‘Ekiti State Judiciary
under siege of political thugs”, the Chief
Judge chronicled recent incidents in the state
where thugs loyal to Ayo Fayose, invaded
court premises, disrupted judicial activities
and assaulted court officials.
Justice Daramola, in his petition to both the
NJC and the Ekiti State Commissioner of
Police, accused Fayose of leading a large
number of thugs, who disrupted court
proceedings, beat up judges and court
workers and also tore court records.
He also accused the policemen and other law
enforcement agents deployed within and
outside the court premises of “looking on
completely uninterested and unconcerned”
while the attacks by the thugs on the court
workers and users lasted.
The Chief Judge justified the closure of the
courts in the state after the mayhem, an
action which he said was to avert “looming
danger within the premises of the High Court
of Ekiti State” after the police officers
“posted to guard and protect the integrity of
the court and its personnel have failed us
and left us at the mercy of political
hoodlums”.
It was also learnt on Tuesday that Fayose
had through, his lawyers, sent a separate
petition to the NJC, alleging that the
Justices of the Governorship Election
Tribunal, sitting in Ado-Ekiti High Court
headquarters had received bribe.
Fayose alleged that the panel members had
been bribed by Governor Kayode Fayemi and
the All Progressives Congress to rule against
him on September 25, when the court
proceedings were disrupted by thugs
allegedly loyal to him.
Fayose led thugs to court
But the Chief Judge, in the petitions both
entitled, ‘Ekiti State Judiciary under siege of
political thugs,’ chronicled the invasion of the
court premises in Ado-Ekiti, by thugs
between September 22 and September 24.
The petition read in part, “Now on Thursday,
the 25th day of September, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose, the governor-elect, again led
thousands of people and thugs into the
premises of the High Court beating and
maiming members of staff.
“The thugs invaded my court where I was to
deliver a judgment in a land matter, tore the
record books, beat court officials and
vandalized the furniture in Court No. 1.
“The political thugs descended on Hon.
Justice J. A Adeyeye, the presiding judge in
Court No. 3 beat and dragged him on the
ground. The judge’s suit was also torn into
shreds. I could not gain entrance into the
premises of the court and had to hurriedly
turn back on being alerted that I was the
prime target of the hooligans.”
Justice Daramola said the attack on the
court on September 25 was preceded by a
similar siege on the court premises on
September 22, when thugs allegedly loyal to
Fayose disrupted court proceedings
apparently to avert the delivery of a ruling
which they suspected could go against the
governor-elect.
The plaintiffs in the suit are challenging
Fayose’s eligibility to contest the
governorship election.

The CJ said he was at the Supreme Court in
Abuja attending the special court session
marking the commencement of the new legal
year and the conferment of the rank of Senior
Advocate of Nigeria on some lawyers when
the violence first broke out on Monday,
September 22.
A copy of the petition reads in part, “On
Monday 22nd day of September, while I was
attending the Supreme Court Special sitting
in Abuja, I was called on phone that thugs
loyal to Mr. Ayodele Fayose have invaded
the headquarters of the judiciary of Ekiti
State where Hon. Justice I.O Ogunyemi was
delivering a ruling on the matter instituted
against him.
“The thugs beat workers black and blue
while the presiding judge and lawyers had to
run for their lives. They smashed windows
and furniture. Meanwhile, the policemen
deployed within and without the premises in
large number were looking on completely
uninterested and unconcerned while these
thugs were on prowl beating and maiming
workers and court users.
“The thugs went on searching for the judge
who ran into hiding. It took your (the
Commissioner of Police) personal
intervention when you were duly informed on
phone to rush to the scene of the mayhem
within the court premises to rescue the said
judge and took him out into safety.”
According to him, from the events which
followed that of September 22, it appears
that the whole episode of violence was pre-
planned.
His petition further read, “The above in the
main was just the beginning of what would
appear to be a pre-planned long siege and
onslaughts on the court and its personnel.
“The political hoodlums showed again in
large numbers on Tuesday, 23rd and
Wednesday 24th of September, 2014 on the
spurious ground that they came to listen to
the ruling which they did not allow the
presiding judge in Court No. 6 to deliver on
Monday, September 22, 2014. No such ruling
was slated for hearing since the thugs
invaded the premises of the court on
Monday.”
The Chief Judge said all entreaties to the
police and law enforcement agencies to
intervene in the mayhem yielded no positive
response.
He stated, “It is needless to reiterate here
that while the mayhem and attack on judges
and staff and property of the court was in
progress, scores of policemen and SSS
(State Security Service) operatives posted to
protect lives and property within the court
premises looked on and watched without
taking any step to save the situation.
“All entreaties to officers and men of Ekiti
State Command to protect the court as an
important institution of state yielded no
positive response.”
Source: Punch