The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State have engaged in a war of words over what could be the outcome of the petition filed by Ladi Adebutu against the election of Governor Dapo Abiodun.
Sunrise reported that the Hamidu Kunaza-led tribunal had on September 4 reserved judgment in the petition, saying the ruling would be delivered on a date to be communicated to all the parties.
But, as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal struck out the petitions filed by the PDP, the Labour Party and the Allied People’s Movement against the election of President Bola Tinubu, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye, said the same fate was awaiting Adebutu’s petition in Ogun.
Oladunjoye, in a post he titled, ‘Failure foretold’, told members of the PDP that if they did not know “that PDP/Ladi Adebutu’s petition against APC/Governor Abiodun in Ogun has gone into the dustbin, then it means you didn’t understand or you did not follow the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal delivered yesterday.”
The APC spokesperson stated that he had in the past written that “Adebutu’s lawyers merely wanted to ‘chop’ Adebutu’s free betting money, but I was abused. They felt, wrongly though, that I was merely playing politics.”
Oladunjoye predicted that “the two legs that Adebutu’s case stood on has(sic) been ruptured by the Judgement of the court yesterday.”
But in a swift reaction, the PDP Publicity Secretary, Akinloye Bankole claimed that the PDP was able to prove its case before the tribunal by calling over 90 witnesses and tendering thousands of evidence.
“Even the Presidential Tribunal which Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye is presently gloating about cannot be said to have the same ways and means and content as the Ogun State Governorship tribunal case. Oladunjoye knows this. He just opted to embark on a deliberate voyage of self-consolation,” the PDP spokesman noted.