The Peoples Democratic Party has explained why it has backed down on its criticisms of the policies and programmes of the administration of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Osun State.
Since the Supreme Court by a split decision on July 5, 2019 dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the PDP in the 2018 Osun governorship election, Senator Ademola Adeleke, against the election of Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, the opposition party appeared to have lost its voice in putting the ruling party in the state on its toes.
The PDP had been vociferous in criticising the administration of the former governor, who is the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, but the opposition party has gone silent on issues concerning governance in the state since it lost in court.
Explaining reasons for this unusual lukewarmness, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said most party leaders and members had yet to recover from the party’s electoral loss in court.
Odeyemi, who spoke on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent in Osogbo, claimed that it was glaring that the APC rigged the Osun election and also manipulated the judgment of the Supreme Court to favour Governor Oyetola.
He argued further that a lot of the opposition party members were demoralised and unhappy over the apex court’s decision.
To this end, Odeyemi noted that the PDP could still have been smarting from its electoral defeat, thereby losing interest in playing its watchdog role and putting the APC government on its toes.
He said, “A lot happened in our party after our candidate was openly robbed of his mandate. Yes, a lot of our members were downcast and sad. Some of us even traded blames on what led to the outcome of the election. So, I think we are still recovering from the loss. When Rauf Aregbesola was governor, there was barely a day that the PDP would not criticise his policies and checkmate his excesses.
“Soonest, PDP will bounce back in Osun and start playing its usual opposition roles.”
Odeyemi also denied that the purported crisis rocking the PDP in the state was over the sum of N140million. He said there was no such money in Osun PDP and that the national organ was already investigating it.
