Special adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on political matters and strategy, Babatunde Oduyoye, has assured that the people who voted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, massively, wont allow the mandate to be taken through the backdoor.
Oduyoye, a two-term former house of representatives’ member, spoke in an interview with Sunday Tribune.
According to him, the judgement of the court of appeal is straight forward.
Hear him, “I am not a legal luminary. But from what I have read from experts who understand the rudiments of the legal system, then there is no confusion as people claim. As far as I am concerned, taking cognizance of the Electoral Act (as amended), and in view of the 180 days deadline for trial of election petition matters at the tribunal as well as the fact that the Court of Appeal has stated that after reevaluating the APC’s evidence, which it said the Tribunal did not give them fair hearing on, then the APC’s claim to victory is valueless and baseless.
“As of now, we are back to the status quo, and that is that Governor Makinde remains governor of the state. If the APC and Bayo Adelabu are not satisfied, they should approach the Supreme Court. When they do that, we will be waiting for them.
“But I want to use this medium to assure the good people of Oyo State that they shall continue to enjoy the dividend of democracy based on the four pillars of the administration’s police, that is education, health, driving the economy through agriculture and security.”
He revealed that the camp of the PDP is now in anyway jittery over the judgement.
“No. Having consulted with so many experts and with the interactions with our own legal team, I make bold to say that we don’t have any cause to fear. People are yielding to fear over the attempt by one individual in the South-West to deal with us. People are also alluding to the fact that because we have the only PDP governor in the South-West, there will be desperate attempt to take over the state through the back door.“But I want to assure you that we are not losing our sleep over this. Oyo State is not Osun State. Osun was carved out of Oyo State. The good people of Oyo State who voted massively for Governor Makinde and the PDP are ready and will not allow anyone to steal their mandate through the back door.”
Asked if the individual he made reference to is backed by the Federal Government, he said that “We have trust in our eminent jurists at the Supreme Court. We still have hope in the legal system. And having studied the judgment, we believe that the Supreme Court will not do other than to confirm the election of Governor Makinde and time that its seats.”
