The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) national leadership has stated that the ousted Osun State Local Government Chairmen and Councillors cannot be forced back into office because an Appeal Court substantive verdict has now sealed their doom.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, made this claim in a statement released Monday in Abuja.
He advised the political leaders of the impacted local government to abandon the idea of re-entering the government since doing so would be a pointless endeavor with disastrous results.
“The PDP also charges the All Progressives Congress (APC) with accepting reality and ceasing to use self-help, deception, vituperations, violence, and killing in an attempt to cause crisis and destabilize the State, realizing that it has lost irrevocably,” Ologunagba stated.
The PDP claims that the Court to Appeal’s ruling, which invalidated the then-Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s unlawful attempt to appoint them as Local Government officers under the pretense of an election, sealed the doom of the evicted Local Government Chairmen and Councilors.
“The APC and then-Governor Oyetola should have known that trying to circumvent the law and manipulate the process to illegally force APC members and apologists as Local Government Chairmen and Counselors was an exercise in futility that was bound to fail in the end after being soundly defeated by the people of Osun State in the governorship election held on Saturday, July 16, 2022.
The cause of its catastrophe is the APC. It ought to have realized that it would be fatal and irreversible to ignore and disobey the Constitution’s and the Osun State Local Government Election Laws’ requirements regarding notices, procedures, and the conduct of local government elections.
“In their desperate but pitiful and unrealistic attempt to win unwarranted sympathy, the Osun State APC is advised to cease playing to the gallery by attempting to discredit the esteemed office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by haphazardly displaying the President’s name in public places.
The APC should be aware that our country has a federal form of government with a well-established division of powers between the several sub-national levels of government and the federating units.
Therefore, it should stop the futile attempt to involve President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government in the local government election issue, which is under the jurisdiction of the State and has no relationship whatsoever to the Federal Government according to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The PDP added, “Instead of clinging to a fictitious thread of straw and causing violence and murders in the State, the APC should prepare for the election as already scheduled by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) if it really thinks it is as popular in Osun State as it claims.
“Our Party calls on the Inspector General of Police to hold APC leaders in Osun State accountable and bring them to justice for this horrible crime, and we vehemently condemn the violence and killing of some youths by APC thugs today.”
“As they continue to support Governor Ademola Adeleke in his outstanding delivery of monumental life-enhancing projects and programs in the State, the PDP calls on the people of Osun State to remain calm, law-abiding, and prepare for the Local Government Election.”
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