All
Progressives Congress chieftain, Kayode Fayemi is set to face
prosecution over an alleged gargantuan fraud during his time as governor
in a South-western state. An Ado-Ekiti High Court on Tuesday refused an
application filed by former Ekiti state governor and current Minister
of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi to halt the work of
the judicial panel setup to probe his administration.
Fayemi
had prayed the court to restrain the state government from probing his
four-year tenure pending the hearing of a preliminary objection on the
court’s jurisdiction.
In his ruling, Justice Lekan Ogunmoye,
refused Fayemi’s request for an interim order since the defendants
had filed a notice of preliminary objection challenging the competence
of the court to hear the substantive suit.
The
judge, however, granted Fayemi’s other prayer for an accelerated
hearing of the suit before it. He ruled that the substantive suit will
now be taken together with the defendant’s preliminary objection on July
31. Defendants in the suit are the governor, Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice, state Assembly and chairman and members of the
investigation panel.
Justice Ogunmoye, who said he had
taken judicial notice of all processes before him, said the decision of
the court was rooted in law. The judge held that there was a pending
notice of preliminary objection by the defendants in which the
competence of the court to hear the substantive matter was being
challenged.
While citing many authorities to
buttress his position, Ogunmoye held that the issue of court’s
jurisdiction over any matter was paramount and fundamental to any suit
before the court, hence it should be determined so that its adjudication
would not be rendered futile.
“I
have no power to grant the application for interim injunction before me
but justice of the matter demands that it will be given an accelerated
hearing. The motion is hereby refused,”
he said.
He,
therefore, adjourned the suit to July 31, for definite hearing. In his
reaction, Fayemi’s counsel, Chief Rafiu Balogun, said the court was
fair to both parties by refusing the interim injunction and granting his
client’s prayer for accelerated hearing of the substantive suit.
Also
reacting, the defendants’ counsel, Mr Daniel Alumun, said it was right
for the court to consider the preliminary objection, saying the claimant
cannot stop a statute from running.