Fayose dares Buhari to declare ‘state of emergency’ in Rivers, Ekiti

Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says he is waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Ekiti and Rivers states as being rumoured.

Several Ekiti lawmakers are currently being detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) allegedly to force them to impeach Fayose.

Meanwhile, the rerun legislative elections in Rivers state were marred with violence, leading to several deaths and the arrest of the secretary to the state government, Kenneth Kobani, by the army.

Fayose spoke to the media on Monday after the opening of the National Economic Council (NEC) retreat on the economy at the presidential villa, Abuja.

He said: “They have been insinuating that (state of emergency) too in Ekiti. We have been waiting for them. Power has gone beyond the leaders, power has gone back to the people.

“There are certain things leaders will do today, you will eat it tomorrow.

“You want to declare state of emergency, declare it and we will tell you that the state of emergency will not work too. This country belongs to all of us.”

He described the Rivers situation as “a service of ego” of some individuals who believe they have control on the federal government.

“I want to condemn the election in Rivers state. I want to condemn the militarisation,” he said.

“Like I said to some people yesterday, if say Ekiti election nobody was slapped, nobody died, the person defeated congratulated the winner, do we now call this Rivers election Rivers of Bloodgate?

“Because for a peaceful election in Ekiti and this in Rivers, the military has got no business in our election.

“Now, I want to say that if you watch the trend, PDP has always won all the elections after the annulment. Which means what happened in Rivers is just a service of ego of some individuals who believe they have Nigeria in their pockets, they can call the president at will to deploy the military and it is unfortunate that somebody would allow the military to kill his own people.

“I strongly condemn the elections in Rivers and charge that we sustain the legacy of transparent elections.

“For me in Ekiti, we learned from that and we are prepared. We prepare for election everyday and we are fully prepared.”