Anytime from now ,a member of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon Adeoye Aribasoye may drag a popular online platform, Sahara reporters to court over alleged misrepresentation.
Hon Aribasoye had alleged that the online media had falsely linking him to a comment condemning Governor Kayode Fayemi over a phantom statement he allegedly made against the integrity of Election petition Tribunal sitting in the state.
The online medium, had on Tuesday, published a statement credited to the Social Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Ekiti, Engr Segun Oni, via his Media handler, Jackson Adebayo, accusing Fayemi of saying that Oni won’t get favourable judgement for challenging Biodun Oyebanji’s victory at the Tribunal for “he has pocketed the judiciary”.
The medium while linking Aribasoye to the comment, had quoted the lawmaker as condemning the governor thus: ” an Ekiti-born lawyer who identified himself as Aribasoye said, “It’s sad that a governor can openly boast that he already took care of the judiciary, or what does he mean by no court can sack his stooge?
“Even in Imo, the court declared someone who came 4th as governor? Is there anything the governor is hiding from Ekiti people? He also claimed that all those in court are mere entertainers, is he indirectly calling the court a bar or club? Isn’t it their fundamental rights to be in court? Saying the court can’t rule against his interests in whatever situation is an insult to the judiciary.”
The Human Rights Lawyer, therefore gave a 7-day ultimatum to the online platform to withdraw the defamatory and inflammable comment.
The lawmaker clarified that at no time did he make any comment against Fayemi over the alleged statement criminally and falsely credited to the governor, deriding the Tribunal’s panelists.
Dismissing the report ,Aribasoye also denied ever making such reckless and spurious comment against Fayemi, saying; “Let it be stated that I have directed my lawyer to write Sahara Reporters to withdraw the offensive publication within seven days of the receipt with a public apology in seven national newspapers, failing which I will institute criminal charge against them for misrepresentation and defamation of my character and integrity”.
Aribasoye said he wouldn’t have made such a demeaning comment against Fayemi as the governor’s protege, mentee and son and for knowing quite well that Fayemi wouldn’t have made any statement that was criminally spewed by enemies to desecrate judiciary.
Defending Governor Fayemi further, Aribasoye stated that the outgoing governor didn’t have the penchant for debasing the judiciary, being one of the greatest beneficiaries of judiciary in the country.
Aribasoye, said Fayemi has enormous respect for the judiciary, and had at no time made such a reckless statement.
The lawmaker stated that Oni and his co-travelers resorted to deception and calumnious campaigns, having realised that defeat was staring them in the face, because their case at the Tribunal was standing on a weak and quaking straw.
Aribasoye stated that it was the firmness of the judiciary that facilitated the reclamation of Fayemi’s stolen mandate from Oni in 2010, and that the outgoing governor still venerates the arm for that singular act.
The lawmaker insisted that what Fayemi said that Oni was only pursuing an academic exercise at the Tribunal against Oyebanji was right, and that such shouldn’t be misconstrued to mean that Fayemi claim that he had judiciary in his pocket.
Aribasoye accused Oni of being the one to be fingered as demonstrating overtly as having the wand to compromise the judiciary, as reflected in the rigmaroling that dogged the election petition filed against him by Fayemi in 2007.
He said ; “Governor Fayemi has a good and rich history with the judiciary in this country. The progressive family in Ekiti has a lot of respect for the Judiciary with the fashion and firmness with which it reclaimed for us our stolen mandate in 2007 and 2009 rerun elections, and we can’t do anything to rubbish them.
“Governor Fayemi has elevated judiciary to an enviable height in Ekiti. He was one of the governors in the country that grant financial autonomy to the arm.
” Under the present dispensation, the state government has lost so many cases of interest in the State High court, which indicated how independent that arm is ?
“If Governor Kayode Fayemi couldn’t manipulate the judges of the State High Court in cases of interest to the state, how would he now exert his influence on the Tribunal panel members who were brought from other states.
“We knew what the opposition was capable of doing. We knew how they invaded the State High Court in 2014 and beat up Judges handling cases that was against them. The APC doesn’t have such an odious history either under Governor Fayemi or Niyi Adebayo.
“The PDP even won a case instituted against the state government in a case involving dissolved elected council officials and state government. This substantiated how free the judiciary is under this dispensation .
” For the sake of clarity, let Segun Oni, who was crying wolf mention how judiciary fared under his ignoble reign in Ekiti. Let him tell the entire Nigerians how he survived Tribunal twice before he was removed by the Appeal Court despite having a bad case.
“Let it be emphasized that Hon Biodun Oyebanji won the June 18, 2022 governorship poll and it was on that point Governor Fayemi stands and wailers should stop deceiving the public with lies”, Aribasoye stated.