My meeting with Fayose was stage-managed – Aluko

The former secretary of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State, Dr. Temitope Aluko, has denied reconciling with the state governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, saying the parley between them was an organised propaganda to stain his image and malign his integrity.

This is as Ekiti state government vowed to go ahead with its perjury charges against the former party scribe just as the All Progressives Congress, APC, says the purported truce will not alter anything on the revelations so far on the probe of the June 21, 2014 governorship election fraud.

Aluko recants Addressing newsmen yesterday, in Lagos, Dr Aluko said the parley was a script aimed at misinforming Nigerians. The former PDP scribe, who recanted his earlier stance, said; “One fact remains clear, there is nowhere that I, Temitope Aluko, refuted anything I have earlier said before Nigerians and the whole world about the manipulations that characterised the 2014 Governorship election in Ekiti State.”

Expressing displeasure over the purported reconciliation meeting, he said; “I was shocked to see Governor Fayose walk into the meeting at this point. I won’t want to bore you with the drama and face-off that ensue between me and governor Fayose during the meeting.  It is however worthy of note that it was at this point that my wife badged into the meeting to inform me that he noticed the presence of pressmen downstairs and said ‘there is a problem’ but it was Fayose that interrupted her saying; ‘’Madam, there is no problem.”

He added that; “At that point, I became enraged and decided to leave the place but I notice Governor Fayose rushing after me downstairs in a gestapo manner. My wife was already fidgeting and almost crying and suddenly I could not find her around me. I immediately realised that I needed to oblige to his (Governor Fayose) instruction of facing the press because of the safety of my family.”

He, however, appealed to Nigerians to disregard the peace treaty saying it was a tactical error on his part.

His words: “I will like to apologise to all Nigerians that perhaps, accepting the invitation was a tactical error. However, I wouldn’t have accepted to attend the meeting in the first place if I had known that Ayo Fayose will be in attendance. I only chose to attend in order to honour the party leaders’ invitation. I will also like you to know that I am dealing with a master fraudster who is always full of mischief.

“You will all recollect how he announced the purported death of Hon. Afolabi Akanni; the purported arrest of four Honourable Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly that later resurfaced; the invasion of Ekiti House of Assembly that never took place; the unfounded $1 million bribe offer by DSS and recently his announcement last week that I brought in policemen from Abuja to Ekiti State to unleash mayhem.

“I need to emphasize that all that transpired on that faithful day was an organized propaganda/drama to stain my image and malign my personal integrity and I believe it would be a good script for Nollywood actors,” he said.

He ‘ll still be prosecuted—Ekiti govt Speaking yesterday in Ado Ekiti, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Owoseni Ajayi, said the state government will not withdraw the case of perjury it instituted at an Ado Ekiti Chief Magistrate Court, in spite of Aluko’s perceived reconciliation with Fayose. The state government had instituted a case of perjury against Aluko at a Chief Magistrate in Ado-Ekiti, shortly after he (Aluko) gave a revelation that the election that brought Fayose into government was massively rigged, contrary to statement he gave as the principal witness at the election petition tribunal.

Ajayi said; “We believed Aluko’s evidence was credible enough, as our principal witness during the governorship election petition, to sustain our case and gave us victory, right from the election petition tribunal to the Supreme Court. We can’t because of this interventionist apology collapse all our cases, government is not run that way. We can’t abandon our responsibilities as a state just because someone apologised to our governor on a case that was already pending in court. They are not fresh cases and we will pursue them to a logical conclusion.”

Reconciliation changes nothing about Ekitigate— APC Meantime, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, APC maintained that the peace parley between Fayose and Aluko would not alter anything in the revelations at the probe panel.

“Olatunbosun said it was mischievous to insinuate that Aluko was lured by APC to lie against Fayose and the military officers who were dismissed after they were found guilty by the Army probe panel. Dismissing allegation that Aluko was lured by APC to implicate Fayose and the soldiers, Olatunbosun said: “This is purely an internal matter within PDP and so APC has no hand in it.”