As news continue to make the rounds that Governor Ayo Fayose has approved the disbursement of N4 billion to fund his plans to elongate his tenure beyond the terminal date in 2018, Vigil360 has reliably gathered that the governor is currently meeting with his lawyers and other top legal luminaries in Lagos as at the time of filing this report.
Sources reveal that the governor who is bent on causing a constitutional crisis in the country is meeting with his team of lawyers to perfect plans on how to explore legal loopholes to further his devious ambition of tenure elongation.
The governor and his legal team are assembling documents as well as weighing the possibility of exploiting the judiciary to ignite a constitutional crisis by demanding for an elongation of his first tenure as governor which was truncated by his impeachment in 2006.
While in Lagos, the governor has been meeting with stakeholders in Ekiti politics, including members of the PDP, APC, as well as business men and women.
The governor who has already set up two teams of lawyers and mobilization groups in Lagos and Ekiti, has commenced massive disbursement of part of the N4 billion from the treasury of the Ekiti state government.
In the face of economic recession in the country and inability of the government to pay workers salaries, this attempt by the governor portends major threat to the wellbeing of the state.
Already, various groups and individuals have condemned the move by Fayose. Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana described the bid as abnormal, assuring that no court will grant Fayose’s criminal move to elongate his tenure.
According to him, “Tenure extension by a governor under any disguise is anomalous. No court can prolong the tenure of a sitting governor buying the two terms prescribed by the Constitution”. He further said that “in view of the settled position of the law on the matter, Governor Ayo Fayose cannot be granted his plea by any court of law in Nigeria.”
Similarly, renowned lawyer, and human rights activist Jiti Ogunye (SAN) noted that “..the constitution did not make provision for an extension when a governor’s tenure was truncated to allow such person to contest and make up for the lost time”.
Ogunye said, “Assuming he wins the election in 2018, will he then govern mathematically or arithmetically up to the month or the year when his first term was truncated?
He added that “ if you were elected into office twice and has taken the oath of office twice, the emphasis is on being elected twice and being sworn into office twice, so you will not be able to contest another term”.
“The constitution does not provide for a truncated tenure to enable a person, whose tenure was truncated, to come back and have another bite at the cherry.”
