Osun Governor, Oyetola Reacts To Court Ruling Sacking Him As Ruling APC Gubernatorial Candidate
The Evangelist edition
October 1, 2022
The Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has appealed to his supporters to remain calm in the face of the decision of a Federal High Court which nullified his candidature in the July 16 Governorship poll.
Justice Emeka Nwite had on Friday nullified the nomination of Oyetola and his Deputy Governorship candidate, Benedict Alabi as ruling All Progressives Congress governorship ticket holders in the poll.
According to the judgement, Governor Mala Buni who submitted their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act 2022.
A senior lawyer, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN had in a suit with No: FHC/ABJ/CS/468/2022 Between PDP v Governor Mai Mala Buni & 4 Ors challenged the nomination and sponsorship of Oyetola and his deputy as the duly nominated candidates of the ruling party.
Reacting in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Ismail Omipidan, Oyetola noted that his team of lawyers would be challenging the decision at the Appeal Court, just as he expressed confidence that the decision would be set aside.
Omipidan noted that the case was instituted by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in spite of the fact there is a plethora of decisions flowing from the apex court that frowns upon such a decision.
He said that, for the records, the position of the law is that only members of the APC who participated in the primary election can approach the court to challenge the nomination of Oyetola as the candidate of the party.
“All these are part of the antics of the opposition PDP and some of their collaborators from within to distract us. But like every of their plans, this too has fallen flat on their faces.
“They want to distract us from the Tribunal case. But we shall remain focused until we take back our mandate. We have confidence in the Tribunal to do justice in the case before it, just as we have implicit confidence in the Appeal Court to set aside this latest decision of the Federal High Court,” the statement from Omipidan read.
