The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has petitioned the Ekiti State Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, over the re-assigning of the controversial case between the
State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose and a group, the E-11, to the same Justice Segun Ogunyemi who the party alleged has been compromised by some people in the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the petition signed by the PDP State Chairman, Chief Idowu Faleye, and addressed to Justice Daramola, the PDP raised the likelihood of bias against Justice Ogunyemi.
The party noted that going by manner that matter was previously handled by Ogunyemi, the governor and the PDP, who are part of the defendants in the case would not get justice.
The petition read in part, “We are surprised; however, to be informed that the same judge, Hon. Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi had resumed sitting over the same case he had voluntarily withdrawn from.
“When we probed why the same judge, whose action caused unmitigated crisis in the state prior to the swearing in of the new governor of the state and a party in the case, we were informed that the National Judicial Commission directed him to resume sitting over the case, however, our investigation at the NJC proved to the contrary. Our source at the NJC asked a rhetorical question of when the NJC has become the assigning judge of cases pending before a state high court.”
Faleye claimed in the petition that authoritative sources informed his party that Ogunyemi was been compelled by the plaintiffs, the opposition party in the state and their foreign sponsors to deliver as earlier promised in an agreement.
He added that the only way out of the problem was to allow another judge within the judicial division to assume jurisdiction over the case, so that all parties to the case could have confidence in the judicious and judicial determination of the case.
The PDP state chairman maintained that his party and the governor had lost confidence in Justice Ogunyemi’s continued handling of the case.
