PDP to APC: Media trial can’t change peoples’ will

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State said it is aware of the desperation of Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) to undermine the credibility of the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state.

The PDP berated the coordinated plot by the APC to  discredit the governorship poll through sponsorship of fake security reports, unfounded petitions and spurious election monitor reports.

Chief Press Secretary to Governor Oyetola had earlier in a piece said that his principal did not lose the election but only lost the vote count, and that the revelations by the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement,(YIAGA), vindicated his position.

Omipidan noted in the piece that he was not in a media trial of the case before the Osun Election Petitions Tribunal.

The CPS quoting YIAGA Executive Director, Samson Itodo said: “Blurry images and poorly captured photographs of result sheets were uploaded on the IReV portal

“It was impracticable to decipher the number of votes scored by political parties on the uploaded forms. In some cases, the presiding officers uploaded truncated images of result sheets. In other words, the images omitted segments of the result sheets.”

But in a statement by the office of the state Caretaker Chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle, and made available to newsmen in Osogbo on Wednesday, the PDP chastised the APC and  Oyetola for its increasing result to media trial of the petition it wilfully submitted to the election tribunal,.

The party noted that in a spate of one week, the APC has deployed several tactics ranging from declaration of insurgency war on Osun people, spurous petition to move the tribunal’s sitting to Abuja and now sponsorship of falsified election analysis by paid agents masquerading as election observers.

The statement reads: “In a reprehensible bid to subvert the will of the people, anti-democratic agents have revived their tyrannical pens to churn out vile articles which will in future hunt them as men and women who deploy their intellect in service of anti-people agenda. Full of bile and hate, their anger at electoral loss has beclouded them to the reality that this is a democracy and the governorship of Osun state is not a birthright of anybody.

” We are aware that the APC’s resort to media trial and the cacophony of fake election monitor reports are designed to blackmail and stampede the judiciary. We hasten to add that Osun people have decided and no amount of trick will subvert their will.

“As much as we do not want to join issues with anyone, we must restate our firm resolve to stand by the decision of Osun people in the July 16 governorship poll, which was resoundingly acknowledged by well over 30 observers, both local and international, to be transparent and reflect the will of the electorate.

“We are well aware of the desperation of the APC and so, not surprised that it will fancy anything that can sustain its illusion that it did not lose the election. The victory freely given to our party and candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has come to stay and we want to warn the APC to desist from promoting any information that could ignite violence.

“Osun people watched their mandate stolen in 2018 and will not entertain any idea of that happening again. Since the APC/Oyetola has filed a petition before the Tribunal, we advice them to go before the panel to pursue the mirage of not losing and stop polluting the public space with misleading information.

“We therefore charge Osun people to be on guard and be prepared to resist any plot by the APC to make mess of our democracy with its incessant culture of stealing mandate.

“For us, as a law-abiding party, we reiterate our respect for the judiciary and have faith in itpushing back any devilish attempt to deny the people their rights to decide who leads them.”