APC warns over warrant of arrest on Aluko

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NIGERIA:  OPPOSITION party in Ekiti State, the All Progressive Congress (APC), has raised the alarm over the warrant of arrest issued on its State Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko.

The party cautioned the court against yielding to the request of Governor Ayo Fayose who sought the warrant of arrest on Aluko.

According to the party, any move to apprehend Aluko, who recently blew open the alleged rigging of elections that produce Fayose, could lead to the breakdown of law and order in the state.

The APC warning was contained in a press release it issued on Thursday and signed by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun.

The party said it was shocking to observe that the court which was one time desecrated by Fayose is the same that was in a hurry to grant the warrant of arrest requested by the Governor.

The APC said: “The impression being created by the court that Governor Fayose is a law unto himself or that he has the court in his pocket, is worrisome against the backdrop of the prostrate attitude of the court when the same man that is slamming a perjury case against an official of his own party stormed the court with thugs to sack the court sitting over his own perjury case.”
The party further stressed: “In that instance, Fayose led thugs to sack the court and beat up a judge, tearing his coat before heading to the Chief Judge’s office to tear into shreds court records in his office and then beat up the Chief Judge’s secretary.
“We are worried that the court that went to sleep during that national embarrassment suddenly became alive to

deliver a ruling on a warrant of arrest request against the governor’s opponent within minutes, even though the same court was handicapped when the temple of justice was sacked by the same man now in need of court’s protection from investigation into the treasonable offence that brought him to power,” it added.
The party also said: “The court should be at the fore-front of efforts to get to the root of how Fayose got these INEC soft copies, including finding out how the results of election held on June 21 could be collated on Thursday June 19 at Efo-Alaaye as revealed by Fayose’s voice in the Capt. Koli’s audio tape.”

It further said: “We would have expected the court to ask for the evidence of perjury in what Aluko said on Channels Television because to our knowledge, he did not speak on oath on the television programme.
“Conversely, if it is on the basis of Aluko’s testimony at the tribunal where he swore on oath that he is being hounded for arrest, we can then assume that his testimony at the tribunal is not true and so he must face a perjury case.
“Even though we know that the problem between Fayose and Aluko is purely an internal problem of PDP, it is nevertheless an attempt to cover the truth in the investigation of the election crime that deprived our candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, a victory in the June 21, 2014 governorship election.”
The angry APC maintained: “By PDP’s action, the party has admitted that Aluko lied at the tribunal but spoke the truth on Channels and so he must be charged with perjury based on the statement on oath at the tribunal, but others who presented the same evidence at the tribunal must also be deemed to have committed perjury and must be charged as well.
“Attempt to arrest Aluko while leaving out other people that presented same evidence at the tribunal appearances will be considered as a witch hunt being encouraged by the court to hound Aluko into jail to block transparency in the investigation of Ekiti poll fraud that brought Fayose to power.”
“We hereby sound a note of warning that never shall we allow Fayose a free reign as he did when he was using thugs to commit illegality, including hounding 19 APC lawmakers out of Ekiti State for six months and the judiciary closed the courtrooms for months to deny APC that had several cases in courts justice,” it also emphasised.
It also added:“Our party will respond with equal measure if any attempt is being promoted to block transparency in the investigation of the crime that denied our candidate a deserved victory while the man at the centre of criminally using the military and illegal printing of INEC materials to win election is being unduly protected by the same court that could not defend itself when Fayose spat at the wigs and gowns and desecrated the entire temple of justice.”