OSUN APC CHALLENGES PDP ON SACKING OF LEGISLATORS The All Progressives Congress has challenged the Peoples Democratic Party in the State of Osun to forthwith produce a certified true copy (CTC) of the pronouncement of the Federal Court of Appeal, which sat in Akure yesterday, that stated categorically that the elections of Federal, and state legislators conducted by Amb. Rufus Akeju in. 2011 have been nullified. Until the PDP can produce that certified true copy of the Appeal Courts pronouncement, Nigerians and particularly the citizens of Osun should totally discountenance the PDPs claim that the court has nullified the elections of their legislators. Theres no such declaration by any court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the APC declared, adding that what the PDP has fed the public is not only a misinformation, it is a blatant lie. For a factual information to the public on this matter, the APC hereby state as follows: A) Before the 2011 election was held, the PDP went to the Federal High Court, Osogbo to stop Amb. Akeju, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, from supervising the said election on the allegation that the commissioner was allegedly a card - carrying member of the ACN (now APC) and a close associate of Senator Bola Tinubu, APC National Leader. B) The Osogbo Federal High Court granted the PDP an interlocutory injunction restraining. Akeju from supervising the conduct of the election but refused the prayer that INEC be restrained from conducting the election. However INEC immediately appealed and obtained a stay of execution of that ruling pending the determination of its appeal. C)Curiously, while the appeal was pending, prior to the election, the PDP also went back to the same Osogbo Federal High Court. Against all known legal procedure to demand a stay of proceedings of the case it took to the high Court. So effectively, not only the INEC, but also the PDP stopped any further action on the SUBSTANTIVE matter until the determination of the appeal in the Court of appeal, Akure. D) The elections held while the litigation was practically on hold. E) After the elections (which the PDP lost woefully), they went to court - not the Tribunal - to seek to nullify the election by bringing a fresh suit instead of the initial suit appealed against. The INEC promptly challenged the Court Jurisdiction to entertain the suit and the PDP on their own volition promptly withdrew the suit. However, on the initial suit pending at the Federal High Court which the PDP got an Order for stay, ACN then applied to be a joinder and the application was granted. But when other political parties sought similar joinder, the court rejected their application and they also immediately appealed that decision. F) So effectively, four different applications were before the courts - two in Osogbo and two at the Federal court of appeal, Akure. The appeal by INEC against the interlocutory injunction granted the PDP before proceedings were held up in Osogbo was the one determined on Friday in Akure. G) Our authentic information is that the court declared that the process of filing the appeal by INEC was defective hence incompetent and was as a result struck out. The Court of Appeal neither made pronouncement on the substantive suit which is not before the court of Appeal, but still pending in Osogbo, nor did it declare the elections of 2011 null and void (as the PDP is misleading Nigerians). H) As you read this, the PDP has a live case before the Federal High Court in Osogbo where it seeks the court to pronounce Amb. Akeju incompetent (because he is allegedly partisan) to conduct the 2011 election. That case has been put on hold by the PDP itself and until the party reopens the case, and get a pronouncement of guilty as charged, against Akeju, the Osun REC remains innocent. What Akure court did was to strike out a defective Notice which can still be refiled. The substantive case in which the PDP is seeking a Courts (not the Electoral Tribunal) pronouncement that the legislative elections of 2011 were allegedly null and void, has been withdrawn at the Federal High Court Osogbo. So an appeal court cannot make a pronouncement on a matter that has not even been heard or argued by the parties involved, at the High Court. This completely exposes the stupidity of PDPs claims that, by any warped implication, the Fridays pronouncement by the Federal Court of Appeal in Akure has any direct or indirect bearing. On the substantive case in Osogbo. The case is yet to be determined by the Federal High Court. The APC therefore appealed to the public and the media to be wary of information coming from the PDP and cross-check facts before arriving at conclusions or disseminating falacies which Osun PDP has become notorious of spreading. Barr. Kunle Oyatomi, Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, APC, State of Osun
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 22:35:42 +0000
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