The candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the March 9 governorship election, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has reacted to the controversial outcome of the Appeal Court sitting on Monday.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Adelabu, said that the Appeal Court’s pronouncement has further rekindled our hope in both the electoral and judicial processes in our march to keep a date with history.
Recall that the Court of Appeal in Ibadan left many confused after giving its ruling in the case in which the APC was challenging the judgement of the Election Tribunal which had declared Governor Seyi Makinde winner of the election.
The four-man Appeal Court panel led by Justice Abubakar Yahaya held that the tribunal erred by not considering every document submitted by Adelabu to prove his case and lumping them together as one. It however did not give any consequential order to the effect.
The Appellate Court in its ruling went on to resolve all the four issues raised by Adelabu in favour of Makinde. The court noted that it allowed the appeal because there were issues of miscarriage of justice at the lower court but added that a judgement must be given after considering the situation in its entirety.
The court further noted that in the present situation, the 180 days mandated for the tribunal to operate had lapsed and there was consequently no reason to touch the ruling of the lower court.
While Makinde’s camp viewed the judgement as victory for them, the APC are expressing hope that the pronouncemnt was a sign that the Supreme Court judgement would go the way of Adelabu and the party.
Adelabu wrote: “When our great party, the All Progressive Congress(APC) presented me as her standard bearer in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Oyo State, we never wavered in our conviction that the good people of the state knew that I was best candidate among the lots that came out to seek their mandate.
“But we never took this for granted as we worked tirelessly round the clock to showcase our blueprint to turn the fortunes of our dear state around for the better.
“It is on record that we ran the most organised and issue-driven campaign and our people, having been convinced of our ability to walk the talk freely gave me their mandate in the election.
“However, the agents of darkness perfected the plan to steal this mandate, hence our recourse to the judiciary to proof their wrongdoing.
“The lower Tribunal, which concerned itself with technicalities rather with the substance of our argument ruled otherwise.
“Now that the Appeal Court has set the tone of righting the wrong, I appeal to the good people of Oyo State to hold the peace and go about their lawful activities as we approach the Supreme Court to validate your victory.
“After the darkness, no matter how long it takes, comes sunshine. Victory is certain for us and the mass of the people of our state.”
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