Lawyer Threatens To Sue Fayose Over Comments Against Buratai

A civil rights attorney, Osuagwu Ugochukwu Esq has called on governor, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to retract alleged defaming statements made against the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur

Buratai within seven days.He said noted that the statements against the Army General credited to Fayose was spurious and unacceptable and must be retracted immediately.In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday, the Lawyer said  “I watched with dismay today morning  during a programme “State of the Nation” on African Television (AIT), when governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, without regard for caution, made reckless and unsubstantiated statements to the point of maligning and defaming Buratai by describing him as corrupt.The Barrister said “Mr. Ayodele Fayose failed to provide any tangible or verifiable evidence to back his claim during the programme, but rather alluded to an alleged Dubai property belonging to Buratai’s spouse without furnishing further details on ho Buratai became corrupt.“Till date, I am yet to see any evidence presented by anybody let alone governor Fayose over this allegation. As a matter of fact, the Code of Conduct Bureau cleared the general and even asked others to emulate him along other Nigerians who duly declared their assets which were verified,” he said.The Attorney maintained that governor Fayose, or anyone else in this country, cannot just malign and injure the credibility of Buratai and go scot free without providing evidence to substantiate the corruption allegation.He noted that “Even if anyone is standing trial, the principle of rule of law states that such is presume innocent until proven otherwise by a competent law court.“Governor Fayose failed to realize that he can be sued civilly in his personal capacity in court and can even be invited, detained and investigated by the Police for criminal defamation noting that the constitutional immunity for the president, vice president, governors and deputy governors only protects them from prosecution in law courts but not from being investigated over civil and criminal matters.”He maintained that “The constitutional immunity only shields president and vice president together with the governors from prosecution while on seat but not from been investigated. If the constitution allows investigation of a sitting governor, there is nothing wrong getting him invited and detained if there was enough evidence that he has breached any part of the criminal laws including that of criminal defamation. A sitting governor can be investigated, invited and detained,” he saidHe added that Mr. Fayose could be detained and investigated by the police, recalling that, the supreme court has held in Fawehinmi v. IGP that any of the office holders mentioned in section 308 (3) of the 1999 constitution including the president, vice president, governor and deputy governor can be investigated by the police or any other law enforcement agency for any allegation of crime or offence in office.