BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Osun State chapters of the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party have traded words over the planned November 27 inauguration ceremony for the state Governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke.
The PDP had accused the state governor, Gboyega Oyetola of attempting to truncate the inauguration ceremony by influencing the judiciary to deliver judgement over the leadership tussle in the major opposition party.
It would be recalled that there is a lingering legal issue between the former state chairman of the opposition party, Olasoji Adagunodo and the PDP in Ikire High Court being presided over by Justice Sikiru Oke.
A statement by the state caretaker chairman, Adekunle Akindele, had directed Adagunodo to withdraw the suit if he was not colluding with Oyetola to frustrate the November 27 inauguration.
Reacting, APC cautioned PDP against dragging it and Governor Oyetola into whatever intra-party squabble the PDP may be contending with.
According to Gboyega Famodun, the state chairman of the APC in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, on Sunday, “it is normal for someone or an association of people who are fugitive to justice to unjustifiably attribute their misfortune to anyone having nothing to do with them.”
Famodun wondered the reason for the consistent paranoid nature of the leadership of the Osun PDP since it said his candidate, Senator Adeleke, won the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state.
The state APC chairman observed that the avoidable noises by the state chapter of the PDP have been deafening, nauseating, irritating, distracting, primitive and uncalled for.
“The PDP would not be the first and the last party to have won the first leg of a governorship election in Nigeria.
“Why is it that each time a court ruling does not favour them, the PDP has the habit of blaming either Governor Oyetola or the APC?
“The whole world should know that neither the APC nor Oyetola is interested in whatever fate that might have befallen the opposition party that is constantly afraid of its shadow because of the illegal luggage in its load?
“No amount of distraction from the pungently confused and disarrayed opposition party would prevent Governor Oyetola and the APC from pursuing the retrieval of the stolen governorship mandate from Senator Ademola Adeleke through the tribunal to a logical conclusion.
“It is barbaric for the PDP to drag the judiciary in the mud over the so-called governorship election victory of its candidate which is a subject of litigation at the ongoing election petition tribunal in Osogbo.
“The same judiciary they are casting aspersions on today, had in the past given rulings/judgements in their favour.
“Therefore, their resort to mischief and blackmail all because they are afraid of their shadow would not deter us from pursuing our case at the tribunal.
“And we are confident that in the end, we will come out victorious. This is our own focus. We are less concerned about their internal wrangling. They should, therefore, spare us and the judiciary their usual diatribe,” Famodun said.
But, PDP, through a statement issued by Akindele, the party chairman, carpeted APC for questioning a home owner who mounts water tight surveillance against perpetual robbers lurking around his property.
“It is strange that known robbers enjoying state protection still possess the temerity and the audacity to accuse the landlords for observing a protective vigil while under a concerted threat from a kingpin who is notorious for his daylight burglary in the recent past. It is even more puzzling when those gang leaders openly ask the homeowners to go to sleep.
“We read with amusement the APC’ statement. Let the defeated Governor and his party know that we are not in any way paranoid or worried. As the legitimate mandate holder, we are fully set and prepared to assume the governorship on November 27, 2022. In the interim, we are only doing what a homeowner will do – secure your property at all cost from a gang of shameless felons. It is not a crime to engage in democratic self defence.
“The whole world knows the APC for its dare devil electoral subversion from the Osun 2018 election to several other ones. As a victim of 2018 electoral robbery, we are committed to democratic vigilance to retain and sustain the governorship mandate of Senator Ademola Adeleke.
“Aside from its record of illegally overturning peoples’ will, the APC is also variously culpable in the destabilisation of opposition parties through recruitment of insider agents. This was recently manifested in the Babayemi’s case which has all the trademark of APC’s hatchet job. So APC has always put fire in other peoples’ houses and it is the duty of home owners to transform to fire fighters and civil police against electoral theft.
“The PDP as the winner of July 16 election has a sacred duty to expose and thwart all anti-people plots to subvert the will of the people including raising alarm on the recruitment of fifth columnists within state institutions to execute hatchet jobs.
“We also want to record our acknowledgement of the Osun judiciary as an institution composed of professionally upright men and women of integrity who uphold the norms of judicial life and who protect their integrity at every step of their conduct,” Akindele said.
