Special Assistant to the Ekiti State Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, has advised foremost lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana (SAN) to desist from his “unwarranted utterances against Governor Ayodele Fayose.”

“It is obvious that Falana is driving himself sick because of his personal hatred for Governor Fayose and if care is not taken, his state of mind concerning the governor may graduate from psychology to psychosis one day,” Olayinka said in a statement issued Friday evening in the state capital Ado Ekiti. He was reacting to a comment made by Falana at the maiden edition of Ekitipanupo colloquium in Lagos on Thursday. Falana had claimed that Governor Fayose was looting funds meant for the development of Ekiti State.

“Falana should purge himself of his hatred for anything Fayose because he (Fayose) was not the one who scuttled his (Falana) ambition to be governor of Ekiti State,” Olayinka said.

He said Falana needed “to get rid of the anti-Fayose cataract that has blocked his eyes so that he can see all the developmental strides of Governor Fayose both during his first term and his second tenure.”

According to Olayinka, “All the dualised roads in Ado-Ekiti (except) two were done by Fayose. Today, which of the past governors of Ekiti can match Fayose’s achievements?”

The Governor’s spokesperson, who challenged Falana to make public any evidence of Fayose’s stealing of Ekiti State funds, said: “It is strange that Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) could go public with accusation of fraud against someone who has not been pronounced guilty by any court of law and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) must take particular notice of this.”

Olayinka, who maintained that Falana was only going about castigating Governor Fayose like he did between 2004 and 2006 because of his ambition to contest the Ekiti State Governorship election in 2018, said he (Falana) was still living under the illusion that he can achieve what he used the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to achieve against Governor Fayose in 2006 ten years after.

He challenged Falana to put pressure on his allies in the EFCC to look into the looting of Ekiti State treasury by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Dr Kayode Fayemi.
Olayinka asked: “Is Falana unaware of the diversion of N852,936,713.92 counterpart fund paid by the Ekiti State Government to access the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) 2012 Marching
grant by the Fayemi-led government, which has made it impossible for Ekiti State to access UBEC matching grant for 2013, 2014 and 2015?
“Is Falana not aware of the N25 billion bond and other commercial bank loans that the Fayemi’s government took and misappropriated, on which over N1 billion is being deducted from the State federal allocation now?
“Why did Falana keep silent when Ekiti State treasury was being looted right, left and center by the APC government of Fayemi? Where was Falana when uncompleted projects like the Oba Adejugbe General
Hospital and State Pavilion in Ado Ekiti were being commissioned by Fayemi?
“Is Falana’s activism concerning Ekiti State only about Fayose and everything about his government?”
Cocluding, Olayinka said: “As someone who used to be close to him, my counsel for Daddy Femi Falana is that he should stop thinking that he can realise his governorship ambition in Ekiti State by maligning Governor Peter (the Rock) Ayodele Fayose everywhere he goes. He should rather come to Ekiti and sell himself to the people.”

•Photo shows Femi Falana (SAN).

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