The Abuja Court of Appeal has announced that judgment on the highly disputed Osun State gubernatorial poll will be delivered on Thursday March 9th,2019.
While hearing the notice the hallowed court stated that it will hear the appeal filed by Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State against Ademola Adeleke, the gubernototial flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at exactly 9:00 am.
The country’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced Gboyega Oyetola, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the governorship poll held in September 2018.
Last month, an election tribunal panel consisting of three Justices led by Justice Ibrahim Sirajol gave a verdict that Governor Oyetola was not duly elected winner of the governorship election and therefore announced Adeleke as the winner.
While ruling on the verdict the tribunal declared that the election re-run where Oyetola won was as a result of the “illegal” cancellation of results in some of the polling units during the main election.
The panel declared that the returning officer doesn’t have the power to cancel or invalidate cotes in the polling units affected.
The tribunal further ordered the electoral umpire,INEC to grant a fresh certificate of return to Adeleke and withdrawn the one given to Oyetola
However the governor rejected the decision and head to the Court of Appeal insisting that “justice will prevail at last”.
In April, the five-man panel of the appeal court reserved judgement after the parties had adopted their final briefs of argument.
Below is the full statement delivered by the PDP in reaction to the tribunal verdict.
TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE OSUN STATE CHAIRMAN OF THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY, HON SOJI ADAGUNODO ON TUESDAY 26TH MARCH, 2019.
Gentlemen of the Press,
I am compelled this morning to address you on certain developments following the judgement of the Osun State governorship election petition tribunal which returned the candidate of our Party, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke as the winner of the September 22nd 2018 Governorship election.
You will all recall that upon the declaration of Senator Adeleke as the actual winner of the election, there were spontaneous applause and jubilation all across the state.
This was a reflection of the true wishes and aspiration of the people of Osun State who freely gave their mandate to the PDP candidate and were so disappointed when the Electoral body in cahoots with anti-democratic forces manipulated the process through what is now infamously known as remote control.
The verdict of the Tribunal was therefore a restoration of hope in the sanctity of the ballot box and the rule of law over the whims and caprice of desperate power seekers.
It is however disheartening to inform the whole world about plans by the APC and the sacked government of Mr Gboyega Oyetola to orchestrate a series of phantom protests and demonstrations in parts of Osun State and Abuja against the well thought out judgement of the Tribunal.
We have it on good authority that leaders of the APC and top functionaries of the State government have in the last 48 hours held series of meetings with some Students Union leaders and pseudo activists to plan the fake demonstrations.
A sum of 500 Million Naira has been earmarked as mobilisation fees for the various individuals and hired groups to be used for the ignoble exercise.
Furthermore, Local Government chairmen are also being forced to cough out sums ranging between 20 and 30 million Naira to support sponsorship of newspaper articles and Television appearances to impugn on the integrity of the Hon Justices of the Tribunal and ridicule the judgement.
We condemn these acts of desperation of the sacked Governor and his party which are apparently meant to blackmail the Election petition tribunal and put undue pressure on the appellate courts.
We also want to sound a note of warning to Government Ministries, agencies, local governments and parastatals to resist any plans to use them as conduit pipes to siphon monies in the guise of sponsoring the planned protests.
We call on the Police, DSS and other security agencies to put a check on these nefarious plans as they will obviously constitute a threat to the peace and security of Osun State.
We assure the good people of Osun State that our Party and the Governor-elect, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke will continue to defend the mandate given to us through all legal and constitutional means.
We will remain resolute in our resolve to restore the glory of our dear State and return government back to the people who have been robbed, pillaged and oppressed by the Lagos invaders in the last 8 years.
We thank you all for your attention.
SOURCE: CABLE,SCAN NEWS
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