We have good case to pursue at Osun election tribunal — APC chairman

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3 years ago

Adeleke and Oyetola

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has said that it would challenge the result of the outcome of the state governorship election at the state election petition tribunal.

Chairman of the party, Prince Adegboyega Famoodu, declared on Thursday that they there is no going back in approaching the tribunal because the party has a good case to pursue.

The party chairman who dropped the hint while answering questions from newsmen after a press conference held at the party secretariat in Osogbo disclosed that the party has concluded every arrangement to take the decision and that very soon, the party would approach the court to fight against injustices during the conduct of the exercise.

According to him, “our legal team comprises outstanding legal icons who have told us that we have a strong case and we believe we will win at the court.”

It will be recalled that Senator Ademola Adeleke, the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was on July 17 declared as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, Prince Famoodu posited that the trio of the electoral body, the PDP and its candidate would be dragged before the election petitions tribunal.

While condemning the protest allegedly organized against the party in the state by a caucus group within the party known as The Osun Progressives (TOP) which is loyal to Minister Of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, the party chairman condemned the act and described it as shameful.

“If we may ask, at what point did it occur to Aregbesola and his rebellious followers that the political party that they had abandoned for about three years which they have been working against needs restructuring?

“Did the Adeleke Dynasty not fund your series of campaigns of calumny against Oyetola and the leadership of the party at the Aregbesola Campaign Office where you converge every Thursday with the task of scrambling to outdo one another in lampooning Oyetola’s administration and the leadership of the party?

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“If they all have a conscience, it would not be out of tune for the said TOP members and their leaders to do an individualistic soul-searching and ask themselves if they are indeed worthy to be called the members of our party again by their obnoxious actions and inactions which partly contributed to the temporary loss of our party’s governorship election in Osun State.

“Was it after they were rebuffed and outrightly rejected by the PDP which pungently refused them patronages after the governorship election as it was witnessed by the composition of its Transition Committee membership that they thought of coming back into the party with a sing-song of restructuring?

“It is, however, pertinent to state here that there is a free entry and free exit in any political party in which memberships are bonded by common interests and ideals.

“Since politics is a game of number and the more the merrier; continuous membership of our party is not foreclosed to any genuine member whose interest would not be counter-productive to the interest of our party as you cannot be an outsider and be canvassing for the restructuring of the party.

“It was not that we didn’t know what and how to handle the members and leaders of the inglorious TOP before the governorship election; we, all along, had been thinking that they would have a genuine change of mind by joining us for the re-election of Governor Oyetola.

“Since they, the TOP people, under the patronship of Aregbesola, had done their worst by working assiduously and conscientiously by teaming up with the PDP for the success of Adeleke, which is the highest level of an anti-party activity that can be committed by any politician, it would be a needless venture to enter into any pact with the shameless political group that is bereft of honour.

“The said self-styled TOP renegades should be told that apart from the fact that they lack competence and moral right to dictate or canvass for the restructuring of our party, the APC in Osun State, it would be foolhardy to allow identified enemies who had worked for the success of an opposition an unfettered chance in our domain.

“It’s expedient to explain here, for the umpteenth time, that all the executive positions of our party at all its levels in line with the constitution of the party have stipulated tenure, which has been the reason for the smooth-running of our party to date.

“It is an aberration for an outsider to canvass or initiate the restructuring of another body more so when the personality constitutionally recognized to head the affairs of the state, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, had shortly after the governorship election, promised to carry out an effective restructuring and reinvigoration of the party,” he submitted.