>
Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has described Wednesday’s judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which validated the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the February 25, 2023 poll as an indication that the nation’s democracy was moving in the right direction with a prospect to meet up with global standards.
A five-man panel of judges led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had ruled that the petitions of the former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and former governor of Anambra State, who was also the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), as well as that of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) lacked merit and affirme Tinubu as validly elected president of Nigeria.
Reacting to the development in a statement issued and made available to newsmen in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, on Wednesday, Oyo APC posited that the judicial arm of government had again proved that it was ready play its role as a reliable custodian of justice, rule of law, ready to safeguard democracy and also serve justice to all without fear or favour.
“As active contributors to the transparent processes that produced President Bola Tinubu as the candidate of our great and the colourful electioneering which had issue-based campaigns as its nucleus, as well as his electoral victory on February 25, 2023, we had no doubt in our mind that those challenging Tinubu’s mandate in court were only chasing shadows. We are indeed glad that the court did justice to the matter in the face of blackmail, propaganda and threat of harassment.
“While we are using this opportunity to congratulate our dear leader, President Bola Tinubu, and the leadership of our great party on this hard won victory yet again, we urge Mr. President to forge ahead in his efforts aimed at uniting Nigeria and also reposition the country to reclaim its pride of place in the global community. The present administration cannot afford to lose focus on the mission to fix all the key sectors of economy, power, security, health, agriculture, ICT among others. It is on this premise that we call on all patriots, including members of the opposition, to join hands with President Tinubu to move the nation forward,” Oyo APC stated.
In the same vein, Oyo APC has congratulated its national assembly members who have had their electoral victory upheld by the various tribunals.
“It is a thing of joy that the mandates given Sen. Abdulfatai Buhari and Sen. Sarafadeen Alli as well as Hon. Akin Alabi, Hon. Olaide Akinremi, Hon. Akeem Adeyemi and Hon. Lateef Muhammed by the good people of their senatorial districts and constituencies respectively have been affirmed by the courts as this is an eloquent testimony that the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man,” the party added.