Osun Tribunal Disbandment: APC, PDP At Loggerheads

By Sikiru Obarayese

Sequel to the disbandment of Osun Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday, the Osun chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC), has described the allegation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as a ‘useless and rubbish talk in the face of the law’.

The spokesperson of the APC, Kunle Oyatomi while speaking with OSUN DEFENDER on Thursday said the PDP should mind its words, saying the party should not assume that the APC has anything to do with the disbandment of the tribunal.

He recalled that after the 2014 governorship poll in Osun, the tribunal was disbanded about three times when the PDP was at the helms of affairs at the federal level.

“The Tribunal that sat for Omisore versus Aregbesola was dissolved for about three times before the final one that gave the judgment. The PDP allegation is nothing but silly and disgraceful to begin to assume that the APC was behind the disbandment.”

However, the chairman of the PDP in Osun, Hon Odagunodo had earlier in a statement described the disbandment of Osun governorship election tribunal as an attempt to commit a second robbery against the people of the state.

The PDP said that disbandment of the tribunal barely 24 hours after the submission of the petition by the Governorship candidate of the PDP, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke poses serious threat to the free and fair administration of justice in the hearing of the petition.

The PDP chairman said, the party is concerned that the APC and indeed the Federal Government appears to be breathing down on the top echelon of the judiciary to constitute a new panel which will be pliable and thus compromise the integrity of the tribunal as a means to manipulating the outcome of the judicial process in favour of the APC.

He alleged that the APC dissolved that Governorship Election petition tribunal to delay the commencement of hearing of our petition with a hope that the constitutionally prescribed trial period of hearing would not be met.

“The PDP regards this as a continuation of the desperate antics of the APC to frustrate the genuine desire of the good people of Osun State to be governed by a lawfully elected Governor, whose mandate was brazenly stolen on the 22nd of September, 2018.”

Meanwhile, the PDP staged a protest on Thursday to against the disbandment of the tribunal.