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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The lawmaker representing Osun Central Senatorial District, Senator Ajibola Basiru, has dissociated himself from a Facebook account which made a post celebrating the victory of Osun State Governor, Sen Ademola Adeleke, at the appellate court.
Basiru, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress(APC) and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, made the rebuttal in a statement issued on Thursday.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had in a unanimous judgment on an appeal filed by Adeleke declared him as the winner of the July 16, 2022 governorship poll in Osun State.
In the statement, titled ‘APC Must Go to the Supreme Court,’ Basiru accused the state chapter of the PDP and Adeleke’s administration of being behind the post.
“My attention was called to a Facebook account under the name Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru with my pictures wherein a post stated thus: ‘Buga judgment has been finally laid to rest!!! Alhamdulilah.’
“The said Facebook account is obviously part of the mischievous handiwork of the rudderless Peoples Democratic Party government of Jackson Adeleke in Osun State, seeking to validate the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which was the result of their appeal against the judgment of the tribunal nullifying the purported election of their party in the July 2022 general(sic) election.
“It seems that there is desperation by the PDP to seek dubious validation of the said judgment of the Court of Appeal stemming from apparent fear that the judgment may not stand the test of review by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Reacting, the Director of Media, Osun PDP, Oladele Olabamiji, dismissed Basiru’s allegations, saying the party or Adeleke would never engage in such an act.
“Who is Ajibola Basiru? Someone who will soon become just an ordinary member of the public after he was roundly defeated by our party!
“If we have any headache at all, he is not among our worries. We cant reduce ourselves to the level of creating a pseudo-Facebook account and start putting materials. To achieve what? He doesn’t even have any political value to warrant such a move and more so, we don’t do such a thing,” Olabamiji said.
