No Work, Schools Shutdown In Ekiti, As Fayose Calls On Okada Riders, Drivers To Help Defend His Mandate

    Pupils
    in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, were sent back home Monday morning and
    civil servants stayed away from the State Secretariat for fear of being caught
    in a potential outbreak of violence following the call by Governor Ayodele
    Fayose to Okada riders and drivers to rise up and help him protect his mandate.
    Nineteen
    lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress have initiated impeachment
    proceedings against him and have requested the state chief judge to raise a
    panel to probe the governor.

    A
    resident of the city, who asked not to be named for fear of his safety, told PremiumTimes that although vehicular movements were not restricted in Ado-Ekiti, there
    were minimal commercial activities in the town as a large group of Mr Fayose’s
    supporters from three transport unions in the states gathered at the House of
    Assembly Complex in anticipation that the APC lawmakers would attempt to meet
    there.
    “I
    took my children to school this morning and I was told to take them back home.
    In fact, I saw about six teachers at the gate of a public school close to my
    children’s school sending pupils home,” he said.
    “Most
    of the ministries are very close to the House of Assembly Complex; most of the
    civil servants did not come to work because of the tension. I’ve called several
    civil servants working there and they said there was no life along the
    secretariat road. They told me that they fear that violence might occur and
    that it is better they stay at home,” he added.
    The
    transporters were responding to calls by Mr Fayose on the state-owned
    television station, Ekiti State Television for Okada riders and drivers to mobilise
    and defend the mandate they gave the governor.
    “My
    mandate is your mandate and you must defend it,” said Mr Fayose in a live
    broadcast on Ekiti State Television on Sunday.
    Soon
    after the governor’s appeal, the state television intermittently run paid
    advert by the Okada Riders Association, the National Union of Road Transport
    workers (NUTRW) and the Road Transport Workers Association of Nigeria (RTWAN)
    calling on their members to gather at the House of Assembly and help protect
    the governor’s mandate with “the last drop of their blood”.

    Meanwhile,
    Lere Olayinka, Media aide to Mr Fayose, has denied that the governor is
    instigating public disturbances and inciting people to attack the APC
    lawmakers. In an email to Premium Times, he said claims suggesting so are
    false.

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