APC praises transport workers over refusal to foment trouble

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has praised drivers and motorcycle riders associations for refusing to obey an alleged inciting order to foment trouble over alleged plan by the 19 APC lawmakers to storm the House of Assembly with thugs to impeach him.

The party in a statement yesterday had accused the state governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose of making a live broadcast on the state media urging drivers, motorbike operators, market women and workers‎ to rise up to protect the mandate they gave him.

Besides, the party alleged that few minutes later, state radio and television stations ran public announcements intermittently‎ urging drivers and motorcycle operators to be on the look-out for strange faces invading the town to work for the APC lawmakers while also urging them to mobilise to the House of Assembly to prevent the governor’s impeachment.

APC in the statement signed by its publicity secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun noted that the drivers and many okada riders refused to protest, saying that they would not be used as cannon fodder while the governor’s children were kept in safety and luxury abroad.

It praised the transport workers for their courage and wisdom, saying it is callous for a man to put fellow human beings in harm’s way over protection of his interest while ‎keeping his own children out of danger to enjoy safety in luxury. 

“We praised the drivers and motorcycle operators for ‎their courage and wisdom. Fayose is used to protecting his own interest and keeping his children in safety.

“The day he was first impeached in 2006, he asked his supporters to meet at Fajuyi to confront the soldiers. It is later that his supporters discovered that the governor had bolted in the booth of his car to safety while his supporters were tear-gassed with several of them wounded,” the party said. 

It maintained that the matter at hand was not about partisanship but about the abuse of the constitution, and wondered why Fayose believed he must win through violence all the time he tramples on the constitution.
 
The party asked Ekiti elders preaching peace to Speaker Adewale Omirin that they must first start with Fayose on the need to embrace peace by operating within the ambit of the law instead of inciting people into violence.

Olatubosun also regretted that the governor’s inciting media statement had created panic among parents who kept their wards at home for fear of attacks on their way to schools.