Date Published: 11/09/10

“Resist PDP’s Desperate Moves on Osun”- Lagos ACN Urges the Judiciary

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has charged the judiciary not to be swayed by the desperate antic of the PDP in doing justice in the Osun State election case. The party says that the allegation by an online news site of the desperate bid of the PDP to buy off judgment in the Osun case and the recent statements by leading lights of the PDP indicates that the party, notorious for similar sharp practices in the past, will stop at nothing to pervert justice so as to retain the stolen mandate of Engr. Rauf Aregbesola.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that it cannot doubt the allegation by the popular news site that the PDP is involved in high level acts to swerve justice and retain Osun State after the horrendous acts of electoral perfidy in April 2007 and the deep layered acts that have been perpetrated to obfuscate the case and ensure that the rightful owner of the mandate is denied his mandate.

“It is easy to see the desperation of the PDP in the Osun case but then the judiciary should know that their image and integrity is safeguarded where they dispense justice without fear or favour than where they allow themselves to be compromised or forced to do the biddings of those that stole power and are ever ready to do everything to retain it. From the earlier expression of fear by Governor Gbenga Daniel that the PDP stands the chance of being endangered in the South West with the return of Ekiti, to the reckless and wild allegation of Okwesilieze Nwodo that the well received return of Ekiti to the rightful owner was secured through forged documents and further down to the thinly disguised demand from the rank and file of PDP members that President Jonathan should intervene in the judicial process so as to save PDP from loosing more ill gotten states, we see a party in very desperate position.

“Lagos ACN knows that the PDP are masters in purchasing electoral results and judicial decisions, which has greatly waned confidence in both the electoral and the judicial processes of the country, especially after the widespread rigging of the 2007 general elections. We are very much aware of the desperation that has enveloped PDP since after the loss of Ekiti State and we are very sure the PDP wants to do anything possible to ensure that Osun remains their ill gotten booty. We want the judiciary to resist the antics of the PDP and deliver judgment on the salient and well articulated case. We want them to know that Nigerians are watching and do not need further tutoring to know when justice has been done and when it had been perverted. We want them to know that many Nigerians are aware of what transpired during the April 2007 elections and know how to measure their expectations within those bare knowledge so they expect justice even if the beneficiary of that electoral fraud do not like it.

“We want the judiciary especially the members of the Osun Appeal Tribunal to note that most Nigerians are not happy that after the unholy electoral bazaar of 2007, in which the PDP reduced the country’s electoral process to a malleable tool to satisfy their devilish craze for power, Nigerians are disappointed, on a general scale, that only a very few of those mandates were recovered and were not happy that many of the tribunals succumbed to the blackmail and buying spree of the PDP to allow them retain the stolen mandates. We want them to take note of the widespread national celebrations that attain the few cases where the judiciary has demonstrated boldness by returning the states to their rightful winners. We therefore want them to do everything to preserve their integrity and resist PDP overtures as well as the many fabricated tissues of lies the party has spewed out since after the Ekiti ruling, in an obvious attempt to browbeat the Appeal Tribunal to allow them retain Ekiti. We want them to know that doing justice in the Osun case will deepen the message that the time is getting over for electoral fraudsters as we prepare for another general election in 2011.”