By Emmanuel Adeniran, Ado Ekiti.
OCTOBER 15, 2018
The family of the late World Bank consultant, Dr. Ayodeji Daramola, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, asking him to arrest and prosecute the outgoing Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose over his alleged involvement in the murder of the late technocrat.
Daramola was assassinated on August 14, 2006 in his Ijan-Ekiti country home over alleged threat by Fayose to prevent the deceased from contesting the goverorship election of the Ekiti State on the platform of the Peoples democratic Party (PDP).
The petition signed by Dare Daramola, who is the junior brother of the deceased, explained that Fayose consistently threatened the late Daramola with assailants, including forcing the deceased to renounce his governorship ambition on radio for several days, because the then Governor Fayose saw Daramola as a threat to his second term ambition after PDP leaders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, had endorsed Daramola to succeed Fayose in the 2007 election.
The petitioner explained that after Daramola renounced his ambition, assailants invaded his home on August 14, 2006 and killed him while suspects arrested named Fayose’s personal aides, Dayo Okondo and Goke Olatunji as the sponsors of the murder. The junior Daramola explained that Ekiti State government led by Segun Oni arraigned the suspects in court but that the chains of political crises in the state stalled the prosecution of the suspects.
The family also claimed that upon assumption of office by one of the prime suspects in the murder, Governor Fayose, the case was listed for trial and it was struck out by the Ekiti State High Court, Ado-Ekiti, in alleged secret trial, but thereafter, having realised that striking out the case would not stop future trial, Fayose in alleged cahoots with some lawyers sought the relisting of both Daramola and Omojola’s cases for a fresh joint trial for dismissal in alleged secret trial.
The family explained that it was at the point of re-listing the case for fresh joint trial for dismissal that good Samaritans among the legal officers in the State High Court leaked the secret trial plot allegedly masterminded by Fayose to the public, including journalists who published the story.
The petitioner added that three judges of the Ekiti State High Court withdrew from handling the cases after media reported underhand deals to secretly conduct the trial to free the suspects without putting family members of the deceased on notice.
He added that the prosecution at one point during the secret trial procured fake witnesses to represent the victims to plead in court that the accused suspects knew nothing about the murder, but again, the plot leaked to media and the trial judge subsequently withdrew from the case.
The Daramola family added that Ekiti State Government headed by Fayose in an affidavit by one Kunle Adetowubo & Co, dated June 28, 2016 in charge No HAD/2c/ 2007 in the Motion on Notice No HAD/71cm/2016 between the State Government and complainants brought under Motion on Notice pursuant to Section 56 of the Ekiti State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2014 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court, the prosecutor listed the parties to the suit as the state government as the plaintiff while defendants are Dayo Okondo, Olatunji Adegoke, T.A Aina and Samuel K. Dada, all Fayose’s supporters that allegedly killed Omojola in Ifaki-Ekiti and Daramola life over plan to contest Ekiti State governorship election with Governor Fayose.
The petitioner further stated that Daramola’s murder came barely three months after Omojola was murdered by the same suspects who were the same Fayose’s agents in his administration that allegedly killed Daramola.
The family averred that Fayose was liable to prosecution as ruled by both the Appeal Court and Supreme Court judgments, which insisted that Fayose had a case to answer in a similar assassination of political opponent, Omojola, in Ifaki-Ekiti.
The family said: “The court ordered Fayose’s arrest after dismissing his stay of arrest suit in similar murder case involving Tunde Omojola”.
“On May 25, 2005, Mr. Tunde Omojola, a Nigerian based in Holland who visited home was brutally killed at Ifaki Ekiti during a local government bye-election”.
“After a thorough investigation of the tragic incident, Mr. Fayose’s lieutenants – Captain Dayo Okondo (rtd) and Mr. Goke Olatunji were charged with conspiracy and murder of Tunde Omojola”.
“When Mr. Ayo Fayose came out of hiding in December 2007, he was also charged with the murder of Tunde Omojola at the High Court. “Consequently, the trial court issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Fayose on December 4, 2007″.
“In a bid to stop his trial, Fayose challenged the warrant for his arrest at the Court of Appeal. In a judgment delivered on December 9, 2010 at Ilorin, Kwara State, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and affirmed the order for the arrest of Mr. Fayose”.
“In the lead judgment of the Court read by Justice Abba-Aji, he said: ‘In the circumstances of this case, I am of the humble view that the learned trial judge exercised his discretion judicially and judiciously in granting the issuance of conditional warrant of arrest against the appellant. The said order is not made in vacuum.
The issues are therefore resolved against the Appellant. I therefore find no merit in the appeal. It is accordingly dismissed”.
“The ruling of the trial court delivered on the 12th December, 2007 directing the arrest of the Appellant is hereby affirmed.” See Ayo Fayose v. The State (2011) 10 WRN 132.” The petition added that the Supreme court also dismissed Fayose’s appeal challenging the Appeal Court judgment”.
The petition explained that on assumption of office by Fayose in 2014 as governor, he re-opened Daramola and Omojola’s murder cases in alleged secret joint retrial to free the suspects but that the media, particularly the online media, leaked the alleged plot.
“The leakage by online media frustrated Fayose’s plot to manipulate these murder trials at the time he (Fayose) himself enjoyed immunity from prosecution”.
“Since he will soon lose his immunity on Tuesday and since the matter is still in court as filed by Fayose himself for justice in these murders, we call on the IGP to arrest Fayose immediately as one of the prime suspects in the murders as ruled by the Appeal Court and Supreme Court to face trial over Ekiti murder cases involving Dr Daramola and Omojola,” Daramola added.
