By: Gbenga Ogedengbe
June 14, 2022
At the Federal High Court, sitting in Ado Ekiti today, one of the APC plans to rig the June 18 Ekiti governorship election suffered setback.
The presiding judge, His Lordship, Hon.Justice Babs Kuewumi granted the relief sought by the SDP counsel, Barister Owoseni Ajayi and his learned friends, to release on bail, a renowned SDP supporter in Ayetoro Ekiti, Mr Seun Olarewaju, who was arrested and detained on May 20, 2022, by a group of soldiers, under the command of one Major Kalu, on the order of Governor Fayemi’s close aide, Mr Sola Durodola.
It is most pertinent to note that it was the same Durodola who was caught recently with different brands of firearms in his possession, alongside one Mr Ijakoko, another aide of the governor.
In the said ruling, the court compelled Major Kalu to produce the detained SDP supporter in court before Saturday election, precisely, on June 16, 2022, and to prove to the court, the reasons why the detained person shall continue to languish in his ‘custody”, where the detained Olarewaju had not been given access to medical care, official duties, family members and, even, counsel.
This order granted by the court has widely been welcomed by the people of the state as a very good development.
According to them, it counters the grand motive of arrest which, they perceived, is to ensure that the detained person is not in circulation on election day. So that whatever rigging package the sponsor (APC) has for that day in his local government area can go through very easily, without any challenge or resistance.
However, it can be very hard to believe that such an open display of desperation could be coming from a party under the watch of Dr Kayode Fayemi who is always very fast to cite his struggles against the highhandedness of the military as his own major contributions towards the enthronement of the ongoing nation’s democracy.
