Pro-Fayose thugs beat Ekiti judge, tear his robe

 

For the second time in four days, people suspected to be political thugs on Thursday disrupted proceedings at the Ekiti State High Court in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday.

A sitting   judge,   Justice John Adeyeye, was   beaten up   and his suit torn by the thugs.

The record book of the Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, was also torn into pieces by the thugs who also   disrupted proceedings at the state Election Petitions Tribunal.

The tribunal sits on the high court premises in Ado-Ekiti.

The tension in the court forced   Daramola to order the immediate closure of all the state high courts.

It was gathered that Adeyeye, who was presiding over a case that had nothing to do with the last Ekiti governorship election, courted trouble when he called on the Governor-elect, Ayo Fayose, to caution the people following him to the tribunal.

“The people following Fayose were making noise close to the courtroom when the judge came out and saw the governor-elect. He challenged him to control the youths but an argument ensued between them and suddenly some of them who are definitely political thugs descended on him and tore his suit.

‘‘They also tore the record book of the Chief Judge.”

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Fapohunda and the Chief Registrar of the high court, Obafemi Fasanmi, confirmed the attack on Adeyeye.

Fapohunda, at a news conference alleged that those who carried out the act did it on   Fayose’s instructions, whom he accused of going round the court premises with a large number of supporters.

He said that Adeyeye had accosted Fayose and advised him to desist from moving around with machete-wielding thugs and causing disruption of court proceedings.

According to the commissioner, the advice   led to exchange of hot words which degenerated into the manhandling of the judge.

But Fayose also told journalists that the allegation was not only unfounded, but spurious.

He said, “I am not aware that a judge was beaten. In fact, this is strange to me. Though I visited the Election Petitions Tribunal as a party to a case and I was the only one that was allowed passage by security agents to the tribunal.

“ To the best of my knowledge, the three judges at the tribunal handling the case actually sat.

“How can I order the people to beat up a judge that is handling a case that has   nothing to do with me ? I ask, at   what point was the judge beaten? Is he a member of the tribunal?   I went to the tribunal and not the regular court.

“But I want to point out that a situation whereby judges or judicial officers’ who should be custodians of the law get compromised by politicians, breeds anarchy . The judge handling the suit against my qualification dropped the case because of tension and because he lacks the confidence to continue.

“It would have been better for him to insist that he would try the case based on its merit. It is sad that most of our judges have compromised.