A few days after Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, raised alarm that he was one of the targets of the Federal Government travel ban to be placed on two serving governors, there is a move by the Presidency to clamp down on his aides and lawmakers of the Ekiti State Assembly.
A source who spoke with newsmen in Abuja revealed that Chief of Staff to the Ekiti State governor, Barrister Dipo Anisulowo, Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Segun Adewumi; the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan; the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Dr. Samuel Omotosho; and the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, may be invited to explain their role in the letter addressed to President Xi Jinping of China, asking the latter to halt a loan of $2 billion to Nigeria ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari visit to China last April.
The Chief of Staff to the Ekiti State governor, Barrister Dipo Anisulowo, had led the delegation to Abuja to deliver governor Fayose’s letter to the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie.
In the April 12, 2016 letter with reference number EK/GOV/28/10, the Ekiti state governor had written to the Chinese Government, seeking the stoppage of the $2bn loan for railway projects in the country.
Fayose in his letter to President Xi Jinping said Nigerians were “totally opposed to increment of the country’s debt burden, which is already being serviced with 25 per cent of the Federal Government annual budget.
He further said that “the government of China should be mindful of the fact that Nigerians, irrespective of their political and religious affiliations, are totally opposed to increment of the country’s debt burden, which is already being serviced with 25 per cent of the Federal Government annual budget.”
Governor Fayose reportedly stormed China same month while President Buhari was still the guest of his Chinese counterpart.
Speaking with journalists the source argued that the Presidency was embarrassed by the role played by governor Fayose and his aides.
“Since Fayose can’t be arrested or invited for questioning, the plot is to arrest and detain, indefinitely and without administratively bail all the officials who conveyed his letter to the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie.”
Daily Sun gathered that Ekiti State House of Assembly had earlier petitioned the National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC) National Assembly, Amnesty International, Embassies of the United States and the United Kingdom over the alleged plot by the Federal Government to prevent Governor Fayose from travelling outside Nigeria without getting clearance from the DSS. – The Sun.
