Oyo State’s Governor Seyi Makinde and the Peoples Democratic Party have been accused by the opposition All Progressives Congress in the state of planning to ‘heat up’ the state with a view to stampeding the judiciary and whipping up sentiments.
The ruling of the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan on November 11 on the Election Petitions Tribunal judgment had attracted various interpretations, with both parties claiming victory at the court.
Both Makinde and the APC candidate, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, then headed for the Supreme Court in Abuja for a final determination of the case.
Oyo APC, in a statement in Ibadan by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Mr Ayobami Adejumo, said, “In demonstration of their desperation to hold on to a stolen mandate, Governor Makinde and his lackeys have concluded plans to devote enormous resources of the state to certain activities aimed at misleading the Supreme Court over the all-important case before it. In fact, the arrowhead of the plot is a turncoat currently serving in the PDP government who is popular for constituting a nuisance in the mass media at any given opportunity.
“Feelers from the Agodi Government House have it that different groups of unscrupulous elements in the society are already lined up for sponsored protests to be carried out consistently in Abuja and Ibadan any moment from now until the day of the judgment, which they know would not be in their favour on account of the reality of the electoral fraud that earned them the fake mandate they currently enjoy.
“Also, we are aware of a secret meeting held recently at a private location in the state capital in which some media practitioners in Lagos and Ibadan were contracted, with heavy sums, to influence media content of their respective print and broadcast organisations with a view to setting a satanic agenda for the general public and possibly mislead the judiciary again,” the statement read in part.
The PDP, which reacted in a statement by its state Publicity Secretary, Mr Akeem Olatunji, said the petition filed against the victory of Makinde at the March 9, 2019 governorship election was doomed to fail.
“Let us put it on record that the truth cannot be coloured no matter how hard you try and so Governor Seyi Makinde needs not engineer street protests to justify his acceptance by the people of Oyo State. He has, rather than encourage street protests, been calming down the people all these days so as to ensure peace continues to reign in the state.”
Packaged by Ojo Peter
