Makinde, Oyo PDP hail Adeleke’s victory

Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

The governor-elect of Oyo State, Mr. Seyi Makinde, has commended the judiciary for declaring Senator Ademola Adeleke, the winner of the September 2018, governorship poll in Osun State, saying the Nigerian judiciary may end up being the beacon of democracy in the country in the foreseeable future.

This was contained a statement issued by Makinde’s spokesperson, Prince Dotun Oyelade, in Ibadan and made available to journalists on Friday evening.

Makinde stated that “the pronouncement of the election tribunal over the Osun State gubernatorial election will reverberate through history because the judgment was not only a validation of an obvious plebiscite, but it was a resistance to jack-knee democracy, which President Muhammadu Buhari is desperately spreading across the land.

“Nigerians should brace up for more shocking judicial judgments that will redirect our traumatised nation along the path of free and fair elections, which appear to be alien to contemporary Nigerian leaders.”

In the same vein, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State has also hailed Adeleke’s victory at the election petition tribunal. The party noted that the governor-elect in Oyo State had always been optimistic that the tribunal would return the “stolen mandate” of PDP and return Adeleke, as the winner of the poll.

Secretary of PDP in Oyo State, Alhaji Wasiu Adeleke, in a statement he made available to journalists in Ibadan on Friday, described the judgment that pronounced Adeleke winner of the Osun State governorship poll as “icing on the cake of our recent victory in Oyo. Remember, Osun was carved out of the old Oyo State in 1991 and we have always shared a chequered history.

“Our dream of quick win of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) will become a success with our brother and lover of development, Senator Adeleke as governor.”

He, however, urged the presidential election tribunal handling the petition filed by the presidential candidate of PDP in February 23 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to be steadfast and take judicial notice of the judgment delivered by the governorship election tribunal on Osun State governorship poll.

According to him, the presidential election tribunal should ensure justice in the case with a view to making it known to election riggers and anti-democratic tendencies in Nigeria that election rigging is no longer profitable so that free, fair, transparent and credible elections would be entrenched in the nation.