Former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal has warned the federal government against punishing the people of Ekiti state by seizing the state’s monthly allocation.
He gave the warning while addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti, on Wednesday.
The former deputy governor criticized the federal government for what he described as ‘rascally behaviour’, and also called for immediate reversal of the seizure to prevent anarchy in the system.
He added that President Muhammadu Buhari-led government needed to exercise restraint and extricate itself from unnecessary vindictive actions that could trample on the 1999 constitution and plunge Nigerian citizens into underserved hardship due to morbid politicking.
Lawal said: “This action is not only illegal, unconstitutional and flies in the face of the law, it was equally morally reprehensible.
“How can a government that swore to protect the constitution and see to the welfare of the Nigerian citizens, begin now to withhold statutory allocation to a state?
“In case President Buhari has forgotten so soon, he garnered a total of 120, 332 votes in Ekiti State in the last presidential elections. Those who voted were not spirits, they were residents of Ekiti with high percentage of them being Ekiti citizens.
“By my own understanding of politics, less than 12 percent of the total population are card carrying members of political parties. Why should the APC-led federal government now punish those who are not politicians and those who voted for him during the last presidential poll?
“Most hit by this illegal action was the civil servants, whose salaries could not be paid by this deleterious action. Majority of them must have by one influence or certain consideration voted for APC in that election. Was this pernicious action a reward for their votes?
“I want to appeal to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to investigate this matter and do the right thing in the interest of the Ekiti populace and the constitution he swore to protect coupled with his former status as a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria,”
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