Osun state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has chided the state All Progressive Congress (APC) for denying its principal culpability for media trial and judicial misrepresentation in the ongoing hearing of the election governorship petition despite the avalanche of evidence and facts.
Reacting to APC’s statement on alleged rumours over what transpired at the Tribunal on Tuesday, Osun PDP reaffirmed that it did not state the proceedings because it has high regard for the Tribunal but posited that the sitting was open to members of the public who all witnessed the proceeding from the beginning to the end.
In the statement signed by the State Caretaker Chairman, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, the PDP said “we saw the many advantages we had yesterday from the conduct of the petitioners’ counsels to the brilliant presentations of respondents’ lawyers but we opted not to state way of keeping our eyes on the ball. How APC turned around to blame us for its legal woes is still a puzzle for us.
“The PDP as a law-abiding body has every responsibility to bring the court order nullifying Mr. Oyetola’s candidature to the notice of the Tribunal. The legal basis for this is the reality that today the petitioner was not a candidate at the election he is challenging at the Tribunal. If the petitioner is not a candidate at that election and as long as that order subsists, the Tribunal indeed has nothing to proceed on.
“The petition before the Tribunal is incompetent from all legal considerations. So PDP is only helping the Tribunal by raising this vital point so that the precious times of our lord Justices will not be wasted. Whether there is an appeal or not, PDP would be shirking its responsibility if it fails to appropriately inform the Tribunal of this vital court order.
“As much as we are ready for the defence against the frivolous election petition of Mr. Oyetola, APC should not blame the PDP for a judicial process that requires compliance with procedures. APC has filed several applications which the Tribunal has to dispose of before actually treating the election petition. If APC is eager to dispose of the petition, how come it filed so many applications?
“At this stage, we want to call on Mr. Oyetola and his team to get a proper grasp of their legal conundrum and do the needful by withdrawing their defective petition before the Tribunal. It is never late to admit to grave political and legal errors”, the statement by the State Chairman concluded.
