By ADESINA AIYEKOTI
Monday, July 30, 2007

Adedipe confessed at a press conference in Lagos that himself and other members of OPC were forced by some Ekiti elders to mention Fayose as the mastermind of the killing in order to pave way for his impeachment.

He disclosed that an attempt by the former chief executive to remove the traditional ruler of Ado-Ekiti and the seizure of his (Adedipe’s) commercial vehicle made him team up with the powerful elders in the state “to remove Fayose at all cost from office in October 2006 by making unfounded allegations against him.”

Regretting his action, Adedipe said: “The time has come for me to set my conscience free from the burden of evil and malice for which I have involved myself with some other powerful individuals in Ekiti.
“It is without doubt that former Governor Ayo Fayose offended some of us and some leaders with which I pitched my tent.”

He mentioned a Lagos-based lawyer (name withheld) and others who attended a meeting held with the former Inspector General of Police, Mr Sunday Ehindero, where Fayose was implicated.
To give credence to his latest position, Adedipe, who also described himself as a one-time personal aide to the Chief of Staff to Fayose, also deposed to a 23-paragraph affidavit before the Federal High Court, Lagos, where he stated: “We also agreed to let Nigerians believe that Dr. Ayo Fayose was a conspirator in the killing of Dr Ayo Daramola whereas he had no hand and knew nothing about it and the I.G.P. had immediately after investigation was concluded into the death, told Nigerians that Dr. Ayo Daramola was killed by armed robbers without mentioning Ayo Fayose and any of Mr. Olatunji Olagoke and Chief Dayo Okondo.”

In the affidavit dated July 27, 2007, he averred, among others, that the powerful people in Ekiti State pleaded with him to rope in Fayose because, “I was the only one that could do it by presenting some of my OPC men to the police who would give statements to the police that Ayo Fayose and I conspired with them to attack Taiye Fasuba and that after the removal of Ayo Fayose, the OPC members would be released and the case would be closed.”

He said based on the arrangement, he contacted his personal driver and other OPC members to make themselves available to the police and to claim that, “we and Mr Olatunji Adegoke, Mr Joseph Gbenga, personal assistant and chief security officer of Fayose, and also one Chief Dayo Okondo conspired to carry out the attack on Taiye Fasuba. Thereafter, these men were taken to Abuja and made statements to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Sunday Ehindero (retd).”

He said, however, that after the purported impeachment of Fayose contrary to the agreement, the other OPC members were arraigned in court for attempted murder of Taiye Fasuba.
The prosecution, Adedipe averred, acted “contrary to the agreement, arrangement we had with the Inspector General of Police and the president that they only wanted to use them to show the whole nation that there were cogent grounds for the removal of Ayo Fayose as governor, because we had made statements that he asked them to go and attack Taiye Fasuba.

He further disclosed that the Ekiti State government now wanted him desperately to be its star prosecution witness to establish that former Governor Fayose conspired to attack Fasuba.
The Ekiti State government, he added, had threatened to get him arrested by the police if he failed to make himself available to testify.