Following Friday’s Supreme Court judgment which declared the sack of local government Chairmen in Oyo as illegal, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyo State has called for the postponement of the May 22 local government election in the state.
Chairman, Oyo APC, Chief Akin Oke, made this call, on Saturday, while addressing a press conference organised by the Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye led Association of Local government of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State chapter.
Oke argued that a postponement of the election by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) will afford the APC a level playing field to also participate in the election.
He said the APC initially shunned participating in the local government election because it wanted to see out the case on the illegal dissolution of elected Chairmen by the Governor Seyi Makinde led government.
He said, “We could not be part of the preparation for that election at the initial stage because we felt the dissolution of democratically elected chairmen and councillors was illegal. Now that we have been vindicated, it is thus right for the government to give a level playing field for us to test our popularity.”
Earlier in his address, ALGON chairman expressed appreciation to all those who contributed to the victory. He dedicated the victory to the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi who he said was insistent that the sacked Chairmen follow the rule of law in pushing their cause.
“He was the driving force who advised that we should not cause a problem in the State, but to follow the rule of law by going to Court,” Abass-Aleshinloye added.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state has knocked calls for the postponement of the May 22 LG election, stressing that the election will hold as scheduled.
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This is as the PDP asked the APC in the state to stop rejoicing over a “spurious and shameful victory” at the Supreme Court.
In a statement by the Oyo PDP state Publicity Secretary, Mr Akeem Olatunji, the party held that Governor Seyi Makinde should be hailed as a special prophet who saw tomorrow.
According to Olatunji, Makinde had earlier offered the sacked ALGON chairmen the same conditions they got from the Apex Court on Friday.
To this end, he said the Oyo PDP did not expect a different judgement from any court of law, looking at the facts of the matter.
“It will be recalled the Engineer Seyi Makinde had asked the State’s negotiation team set up to find an out-of-court settlement (at the earlier stages of the trial) to propose the of front payment of the salaries of the embattled ALGON Chairmen, but they were misadvised by their greedy leaders whose target was the treasury of the local governments. It is obvious the Governor Makinde actually saw tomorrow.
“In fact, they should count themselves lucky because the Supreme Court was more than generous to them when it overlooked the series of slap the APC inflicted on the court system in the process of installing the all gone ALGON members.
“The illegality perpetrated by the APC government when it imposed its members on Oyo Councils, flouting in the process, every laid down electoral regulations and guidelines, would easily found conspicuous space in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“The APC in Oyo State and its forever gone ALGON members is just an empty vessel that makes loud noises, full of fury and agony for no just cause.
“That some APC leaders are jubilating and dancing macabre dance over the zero success they recorded at the Supreme Court is shameful and an open display of the myopic thinking of uninformed politicians.
“They want the public to forget that the real prayers at the Supreme Court were that they be returned to office as chairmen, a quest that was thrown away like rotten fruits when the Apex Court declared that their tenure had expired.
“How can any right-thinking politician muscle up the motivation to celebrate such a zero success?
“But their shamelessness has shown clearly because, in actual sense, it is not such an easy task to embark on such a wild goose chase and be so disgraced at every court approached.
“The fact of the matter is that the case actually favoured PDP Starboy Governor Seyi Makinde, our very own world striker!
“We are not surprised that in their usual manner, the APC is mouthing victory when they came out the worst for it.
“The simple fact is that the Supreme Court, in its judgement, noted that the the tenures of the sacked Council chairmen and Councillors have expired and only reiterated the earlier stance of the Governor Seyi Makinde- led State Government, which had offered compensation to the sacked local government chairmen before now.
“Unfortunately, as it is their stock in trade, the APC went to town touting all sorts of claims and spreading lies with the sole intent of misinforming some uninformed members of the public and its members.
“Governor Makinde, without the court, willingly moved to offer them compensations in a peace parley but they rejected it saying they only want to be returned to office. Now that they went ahead to the Supreme Court, what did they get? The Apex Court only said hey! your tenure has since expired, you can only get paid some compensations.
That’s exactly what Governor Makinde had offered. What really are they rejoicing over?
“It is even more laughable that a man like the former Governor Alao Akala is telling the state not to proceed with democratic elections, that will usher in chairmen in the state.
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“We are not surprised at such ludicrous reasoning because as we recall, the APC, an epitome of illegality and corruption, used caretaker, local government chairmen, for seven out of its eight, while only setting up the sacked ALGON chairmen as a booby trap to destabilise the Makinde administration.
“They should not think that the people have forgotten so soon such the draconian governance that epitomized modern-day slavery, which APC represented in Oyo State between May 2011 and May 2019.
“The PDP in Oyo State has come to usher in true Democracy and we have been doing that for the past two years. The days of impunity and illegality as imposed by the riotous and inept APC are over.
“The APC and their outgone ALGON who see their failure as a pass mark should prepare to go back to court for its own political miscalculation.
“The APC family in Oyo State should cover their eyes in shame at least for the sake of honour and dignity. Tenure has since expired. They can’t go to work, they are gone, they are politically jobless, but no! APC in our dear state never keeps quiet not even when they utter sounds without any form of meaning.
“The local government election billed for 22nd of May will hold and all participating political parties will present their best materials before the people to be elected and funny enough we will not be allowed to be drawn back to the dark days of APC administration where the people at the grassroots where denied local government administration.”
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