By Hon Ayoade Rasheed Adegboyega
Articles and joinders in negative form against APC and Chief Adelabu (the governorship candidate of APC in the last election in Oyo state)have barraged through the cyberspace since the election petition over the poll has found itself before the supreme court of Nigeria.
Even a PDP regional Stakeholders meeting has taken place in Abeokuta, Ogun State. All this are in anticipation of what the judgement of the Supreme Court will be in the governoship election petition appeal of Oyo state between Governor Seyi Makinde and Chief Adebayo Adelabu.
High riding political accusations and vituperations without any basis in law or reason are daily being thrown at the doorstep of the good people of Oyo state and Nigeria at large. Extreme negative nuances that has no basis even in common sense are daily being thrown at people in order to diminish their hard earned integrity. All in the name of politically anticipating the outcome of the election appeal before the final court of the land.
Where really did Chief …Adelabu go wrong ? Can the detractors point it out ? May be we should just go down memory lane a bit.
At the governoship election petition tribunal for Oyo state, the governoship candidate of APC filed a petition challenging the victory of Engineer Seyi Makinde and the tribunal threw the petitioner’s petition out.
On this basis, Adebayo Adelabu, the petitioner filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal. The Court gave it’s judgement, frowning at the way the governorship election petition tribunal threw out the petition of the APC candidate without allowing him a scintilla of fair hearing, but the appeal court failed to give any of the declaratory or consequential orders sought by the petitioner/appellant. Thereafter, the appellant moved his matter to the highest and last court of the land, that is, the Supreme Court.
What the cerebral Adelabu did by moving to the Supreme Court is rightly and assiduously following the Rule of Law and not that of violence mongers. It is exactly what any sane person that is aggrieved over a matter should do, instead of resorting to jungle justice as some elements would have done if they were in his shoes. The APC candidate as a law abiding citizen, has followed the part of taking advantage of the law as provided for by the Electoral Act, in moving from the Election Tribunal through the Court of Appeal and finally to the Supeme Court. It is within the inalienable right of the governorship candidate of APC to apprach the courts .
Or are those shouting wolf now, where there’s none, telling him to jettison his constitutionally given right ?
What really do these wolf baying policians want Adelabu and APC to do ? To meekly walk away, when the constitution guarantees him a leeway ? Or what really do these people want him to do?
Hearing and reading through various narratives of PDP elements, shows exactly, that they are seeing political doom far ahead of them as the Supeme Court goes through the Adelabu versus Makinde matter. They are seeing afar off that their political ship is about hitting “penkelemesi iceberg” of thorough legal scrutiny of their phyric electoral victory and their best form to avoid the failure is to erupt in shouting rants of seeing a wolf at the Supreme Court where none exists.
Yes, they may loose at the Supreme Court like any party to a dispute can. That is the essece of judicial adjudications. One wins and another looses. But to start a red herring of interference and diminishing good names of political leaders and the Presidency is tantamount to naked Machiavellian tactics that does the judiciary or the rule of law no good.
The hype of tampering with the judgement of the Supreme Court by PDP elements does not do Governor Seyi Makinde any good himself. All the PDP sponsored media hype of a wolf gone loose against the poultry is just a means of saying “we told you so” by the time they loose at the Supeme Court. Then, we need ask ourselves whether they are not preparing the ground to unleash violence, anarchy and mayhem on the good people of Oyo state in case the judgement does not favour them ? Let’s earnestly ask them now: “where’s the wolf ?”. To discerning minds, there’s no wolf anywhere. They are the real wolves and judgement tampering politicians trying to destroy confidence in our judicial process and thereby destroy our hard earned democracy.
Adelabu has every right to approach the Supeme Court in order to lay his matter before their Lordship. He is a law abiding citizen.
So, my plea to GSM, PDP and it’s stakeholders is to allow the rule of law to reign and assure all our people that no matter where the pendulum swings at the Supeme Court, law and order will be allowed to reign in the pacesetter state.
They should stop the needless vibes of agitating the people of Oyo state into irate mobs on both sides of the divide. They should allow the reverred judges of the Court perform their constitutional duty without insidious political hecklings reverberating all around them.
Let the rule of law takes it’s course!
