The Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday, described the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed Gov. Gboyega Oyetola as the winner of Sept. 22, 2018 Governorship Election in the state as “historic’’.
APC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Kunle Oyatomi in Osogbo, said that God had used the highest legal authority of the land to proclaim the truth that Oyetola lawfully won the election.
According to him, the Progressive God that Osun people are serving heard their prayers and granted their request.
“Our fears for the calamity that might have befallen the state of Osun, if the PDP had been declared winner, have now been assuaged. We are overjoyed for this amazing grace”.
“Those who had wished for a different outcome have a lesson to learn here; that there is a natural limit to which you can stretch evil. It was this limit the PDP got in their attempt to stage a miraculous upset at last September’s election.”
Oyatomi said that subsequent efforts to spin the law at the tribunal, unraveled at the Court of Appeal, finally died at the Supreme Court.
“The details are now history. This is not simply a victory for the party alone; it is a victory for the good people of the state of Osun. May the good Lord give the governor the wisdom, strength and foresight to expand the legacy he inherited, and set Osun on the irreversible course that God and the entire people of Osun will be proud of,” Oyatomi said.
Meanwhile, Oyetola has described his victory at the apex court as a victory for democracy.
The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Adeshina Adeniyi, in an interview with NAN, said he was happy with the judgment.
Oyetola, who dedicated the victory to God and the people of the state, said he believed justice had been done.
The governor said he was ready to serve the people of the state faithfully and diligently.
The Supreme court had in a split judgment of five to two on Friday upheld the election of Oyetola.
In the judgment delivered by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, the Apex Court declared the proceedings and judgment of trial tribunal a nullity on the grounds that Justice Peter Obiora, the judge who had read the majority judgement at the tribunal, was evidently absent on Feb. 6, following the documents before the court.
Five out of the Seven-man panel of Justices including the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad declared Oyetola as winner of the September 2018 election while two had a dissenting opinion.
Rhodes-Vivour held that the failure of Justice Obiora to be present on that day meant that the tribunal lacked the authority to have given any judgment on the matter.
He held that when the rightly constituted panel of a court does not seat, the activities carried out by that panel is a nullity. (NAN)