The APC governorship candidate in the last gubernatorial election in Oyo State, Chief Bayo Adelabu has reacted to the Appeal Court ruling on his petition following the judgement of the lower tribunal that does not go in his favor.
The Court of Appeal said it found that the judgement of the lower tribunal that dismissed Adelabu’s petition against Makinde’s election as the governor was perverse and therefore set the judgement aside.
According to Opera News, “The Court refused to nullify the election; it refused to order a fresh election and it also refused to order the retrial of the petition"
It should then be recalled that, Makinde polled 515,621 votes to defeat Adelabu who polled 357,982 votes. Makinde defeated Adelabu in 28 of Oyo's 33 local government areas. It said that it would have ordered a retrial but for time limit. Adelabu is challenging results in 13 of the 28 local government areas won by Makinde. He himself had secured victory in the remaining 5.
Below is the official statement of the APC governorship candidate as obtained.
"I Have A Date With History"
The pronouncement made by the Election Appeal Tribunal on our challenge of the ruling of the lower Tribunal on Monday has further rekindled our hope in both the electoral and judicial processes in our march to keep a date with history.
When our great party, the All Progressive Congress(APC) presented me as her standard bearer in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Oyo State, we never wavered in our conviction that the good people of the state knew that I was best candidate among the lots that came out to seek their mandate.
But we never took this for granted as we worked tirelessly round the clock to showcase our blueprint to turn the fortunes of our dear state around for the better.
It is on record that we ran the most organised and issue-driven campaign and our people, having been convinced of our ability to walk the talk freely gave me their mandate in the election.
However, the agents of darkness perfected the plan to steal this mandate, hence our recourse to the judiciary to proof their wrongdoing.
The lower Tribunal, which concerned itself with technicalities rather with the substance of our argument ruled otherwise.
Now that the Appeal Court has set the tone of righting the wrong, I appeal to the good people of Oyo State to hold the peace and go about their lawful activities as we approach the Supreme Court to validate your victory.
After the darkness, no matter how long it takes, comes sunshine. Victory is certain for us and the mass of the people of our state.
Signed
Adebayo Adelabu FCA, FCIB