Deregistration Ruling Violates Appeal Court Order – Adeleke
•Calls For Calm, Says Re-Election Campaign Flag-Off Holds Tuesday
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has described the Federal High Court ruling deregistering five political parties as “an abuse of court process” and a direct violation of a subsisting order of the Court of Appeal.
OSUN DEFENDER reports that Justice Peter Lifu, in a judgment on Monday, asked INEC to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
But Adeleke, in a statement by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said the Court of Appeal had ordered a stay of proceedings at the Federal High Court, including the judgment that was later delivered.
“The Appeal Court had made an order for the stay of proceedings by the Federal High Court, more particularly the said judgment that was delivered,” Adeleke said.
“I expressed surprise that the lower court still proceeded to deliver a ruling on a matter already acted upon by the Court of Appeal,” the governor added.
The governor urged Osun residents to remain calm, assuring that the Court of Appeal would take up the matter on Tuesday.
“Our lawyers are taking all the necessary steps to right the wrong,” he said.
“Efforts to stop Osun people from exercising their voting rights will fail by the special grace of Almighty God. The Rule of Law and humanity shall prevail at the end of the day.”
Adeleke said his party, the Accord, would still participate in the August 15 governorship election and expressed confidence of victory.
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“I call on Osun people to remain calm and be assured that our rights will be affirmed and our party, the Accord, will be on the ballot on August 15th,” he stated.
“We will not only be on the ballot, but we will win overwhelmingly the forthcoming governorship election. We should remain calm and forge ahead with mobilisation of our people.”
He also dismissed attempts to derail the party’s campaign schedule, confirming that the flag-off would proceed as planned.
“I also want to assure our people that the flag-off of our campaign is holding as scheduled tomorrow,” the governor said. “They want to distract us. We are going ahead, and we are winning this election.”
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
