• Ekiti lawmakers allege plot to silence governor
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Mohammadu Buhari to dialogue with the militants, especially the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) with a view to halting hostilities in the oil-rich region and averting the imminent collapse of the nation’s economy following weeks of attacks on oil installations in the area.

He contended that the President’s failure to attend the kick-off of the Ogoni clean-project yesterday after earlier threats from the NDA, amounted to surrendering to the “superior powers of the militants.”

According to a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said it was ‘embarrassing’ that Buhari backed out of the exercise after assuring on a number of occasions that he was going to lead from the front.

Fayose, who wondered why the President was not always interested in visiting states in contrast to his alleged penchant for overseas trips, added that it was time he stopped acting like a ‘foreign president.’

Meanwhile, members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have alleged plan to take the state governor “out of circulation” for being critical of the Federal Government.

They contended that he was the governor referred to, in a purported recent report that allegedly claimed two governors were under surveillance and could be barred from making overseas trips.

During a briefing yesterday with select reporters in Ibadan, Oyo State, the three legislators, led by the Deputy Speaker, Segun Adewunmi, threatened to cause what they termed “international stalemate’’ to embarrass Nigeria among the comity of nations.

They said they will react in a manner that would prove to the whole world that “we are not fools”, adding that “we would not accept the plan to muscle the governor or do anything that would tamper with his authority and immunity as a sitting governor”.The other two legislators at the event were Chairman, House Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan and Samuel Omotosho.