Osun Election Petition: No Court Order On Adeleke's Certificate — Osun PDP To APC

The Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has debunked news reports that the Tribunal ordered certificates and the 2018 filing of Senator Ademola Adeleke.

In a statement by Adekunle Akindele, the Osun PDP caretaker chairman on Thursday, the party said the APC is engaged in misrepresentation as there was no such order and as the 2018 matter has no connection to the 2022 proceedings.

Condemning the consistent falsehood from the APC, the PDP noted the APC only sought to serve a subpoena on the electoral body and that the entire 2018 issue will even be challenged by the respondents at the defence stage.

Citing Supreme Court clearance of Senator Adeleke, the party affirmed that APC's case has no grounding and that the death of Babayemi's case at the Supreme Court marks the eclipse of Oyetola's illegal push to hold onto power.

"It is imperative to clear the air as to the calculated attempts of Mr Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress to poison the minds of responsible members of the society with insinuations that are not verifiable but simply mere fabrications, distortions and propaganda on happenings at the Governorship tribunal.

"To start with, it is apparent that petitioners have failed woefully from the July 16 election to the spurious election petition and other anti-people activities of the administration.

"The propaganda of APC has been so rife that the entire media space has been polluted with lies and misrepresentations. Meanwhile, the truth is here and falsehood is bound to vanish.

"At the beginning of the election petition tribunal particularly at the pre-hearing session stage, it was unanimously agreed by Counsel to the Petitioner and Respondents that all documents shall be tendered and admitted during trial, while objections to their admissibility will be taken at the final address stage.

"This formed part of the pre-hearing report of the Tribunal. It is also part of the pre-hearing report that 24 hours before any hearing date, the party conducting the hearing and calling witnesses shall file and serve a schedule to that effect.

"May we inform members of the public that since the beginning of the hearing at the Tribunal, the APC and Oyetola Lawyers have been helplessly wandering and dancing around their petition?

"No single witness has ever been called. The public can do a fact check on this at the Tribunal as they would discover that the petitioners have been indolent and unserious with their case.

"Despite the ample time at their disposal, they have been giving one excuse or the other to get adjournments from the Tribunal. It has always been a time-wasting voyage on their part. However, what they have been doing is to deploy media propaganda to mislead members of the public at the Tribunal.

"It was thus discovered that the major hope of Oyetola and the APC was the case instituted by Dotun Babayemi the expelled member of Osun PDP, which case the trial Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court did justice to by dismissing same.

"We salute the courage of the judiciary in this regard by not allowing the APC to snatch away the popular mandate of the Osun electorate through the back door.

"What we have then discovered is that the APC and Oyetola have been deploying the scarce resources of the State to engage in media propaganda as far as the Tribunal proceedings are concerned.

"The PDP and Adelekes' lawyers have given the APC what they didn't bargain for, the reason why they are irrational and delusional.

"We want to make certain clarifications to clear the falsehood and lies of the APC:

"As at yesterday the last sitting of the Tribunal, there was no order of the Tribunal compelling INEC or the Governor-elect Senator Ademola Adeleke to produce any document or certificate as it was obvious that the APC were not serious with their case.

"At any rate, all the documents of Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke are in the public domain and verifiable.

"Secondly, the documents he submitted to INEC in 2018 were what the APC used to persecute him and sponsored malicious cases against him, in respect of which he has been vindicated up to the Supreme Court.

"We want to assure members of the public that the APC and Oyetola are trying to fetch water from a dry well by their petition at the Tribunal, which is a mirage.

"We hereby appeal to members of the public to disregard the lies and propaganda of the APC as the last kick of a dying horse. Let them not distract us from the swearing-in preparations as their petition is dead on arrival," he said.