Accept Your Culpability for  Judicial Misrepresentation, Osun PDP Tells Oyetola

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chided the state All Progressives Congress (APC) for denying its principal culpability for media trial and judicial misrepresentation in the ongoing hearing of the election governorship petition tribunal despite avalanche of evidence and facts.

Reacting to APC’s statement on alleged rumours over what transpired at the tribunal last Tuesday, the PDP reaffirmed that it issued no statement on the proceedings because it has high regards 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 party Caretaker Chairman, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, the PDP said: “We saw the many advantages we had yesterday from the conduct of the petitioners’ counsel to the brilliant presentations of respondents’ lawyers, but we opted not to issue a statement as a 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 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.” “f 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 in 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 Oyetola, APC should not blame the PDP for a judicial process which requires compliance with procedures. APC has filed several applications which the tribunal has to dispose off before actually treating the election petition. If APC is really eager to dispose of the petition, how come it filed so many applications?

“At this stage, we want to call on Oyetola and his team to get 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.”