Ekiti: Omirin, 74 others jostle for APC Assembly tickets

 Embattled Speaker of the Ekiti State Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin,

The embattled Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, and 74 others were among those vying for tickets of the All Progressives Congress to contest the 2015 House of Assembly election in the state.

Aside Omirin, 14 other serving APC lawmakers are also seeking re-election.

Speaking with journalists in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, the state APC Publicity Secretary, Chief Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the embattled lawmakers still had constitutional rights to contest election.

He said the APC House of Assembly committee sent from Abuja had distributed all the materials to the 26 constituencies in the presence of the agents of all the aspirants’.

Olatunbosun revealed that voting would be through the delegate system and that aspirants had been warned to maintain peace to prevent post-primary crisis.

He said, “There won’t be any imposition in any constituency. You know when you make a process of election transparent, then you will have little crisis to manage.

“Our party is encouraging internal democracy. We are encouraging our people to select whoever they want to be their flag bearers. I want to tell you that if other parties are imposing candidates, APC won’t do that.”

The party also accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of committing contempt of court by going ahead with the incarceration of the state Chairman of the party, Chief Jide Awe, in spite of a court order stopping his arrest over alleged murder case.

He said, “What Fayose wants is to put the judiciary in his right pocket and legislature in his left pocket of his trousers and the security agencies in his back pocket.

“A court of law gave a valid ruling stopping Chief Jide Awe’s arrest pending the determination of the substantive suit, but this is not being respected.

“But soonest, the constitution, the people and God Himself will take pre-eminence. Nobody is greater than the law. The law itself will fight very soon.”

A Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, had last week restrained the police from re-arresting Awe and four others over the alleged murder of one Ayo Jeje and Mrs. Julianah Adewumi in Erinjiyan Ekiti on March 30, 2014.