There appears to be no end in sight to the confrontation between the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, and the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin.
On Tuesday, the Ekiti State Government sealed off four filling stations in Ado-Ekiti, including T. Five Integrated Service Filling Station, owned by Omirin.
According to a statement in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday by the Chief Press Secretary to Fayose, Idowu Adelusi, the step was taken to prevent unimaginable fire accident with attendant fatalities.
“The owners of the affected petrol stations are to report to the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Urban Development with letters of approval,” Adelusi said in the statement.
But Omirin said Fayose ordered the closure of the filling station in order to intimidate and coerce him.
Omirin, a member of the All Progressives Congress, and Fayose, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, have been at loggerheads even before Fayose’s inauguration.
Omirin, according to a statement by his spokesman, Wole Olujobi, said he would not “buckle under undue political pressure to abandon his party for the Peoples Democratic Party for selfish and pecuniary motives”.
Omirin said a member of the Assembly, Joseph Dele Olugbemi, had told him two days after Fayose’s inauguration that the governor had made up his mind to close his filling station over his refusal to join the PDP.
Olugbemi was among the six APC members that defected to the PDP on the day of the inauguration.
Omirin had earlier promised the governor that the House of Assembly would work with him in the interest of Ekiti State people to deliver dividends of democracy.
The statement by Omirin added: “I called the governor to confirm what the honourable member told me about the plan to close my filling station. The governor denied any of such plan, swearing that he would not victimise any opponent.
“But only yesterday the governor ordered the closure of the filling station, citing environmental factor.”