Ogun tribunal ruling: We’ll do everything to right this injustice – Akinlade

Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) runner-up for governor in Ogun State, has said that the PDP will appeal the tribunal’s decision.

In a statement released by his media aide Adelani Azeez, Akinlade reassured party members that the petitioners had anticipated the tribunal’s ruling on Saturday.

The tribunal said Saturday that the challenge to Governor Dapo Abiodun’s election filed by Adebutu and the PDP was without merit, as previously reported by Infostride News.

Akinlade stated, “As a people and party, we must take solace in three facts: first, that the Tribunal is the court of first instance; second, that we are blessed with a resolute leader; and lastly, that time, which is the determinant of all things, is on our side.”

During his 2019 campaign against the sitting governor, Akinlade cited the words of the late sage Obafemi Awolowo: “It is not how many times a man falls or fails that matters, but his ability to rise each time, learn from his mistakes, and forge ahead.”

He urged PDP supporters and Ogun State residents to view the verdict as a temporary setback, saying, “From the beginning, we predicted this outcome, considering the set of individuals we are engaging.”

He reflected on the past: “In 2022, they hurled everything they had at us, got our candidates and party (PDP) removed from INEC list with the goal of stopping us from participating in the 2023 general elections. They spread the falsehood that Ogun State had no opposition, but we resorted to God, fought bravely, and were vindicated by the courts.

Time jump to March of 2023: our members were detained, our leader was blackmailed and threatened, yet we won at the polls.

We called 94 witnesses, including experts, submitted over 200,000 certified documents in evidence, and defended our case effectively in front of the election petition tribunal, despite all the odds being stacked against us.

The panel “mercifully” sided with us on the matter of vote buying on September 30th, 2023. “We said it from the beginning that the alleged issue of vote buying was nothing more than a ploy to distract us,” the authors write.

The official statement on the appeal read as follows: “As we commence the process of filing our notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal, we assure our teeming supporters and the good people of Ogun State that we will not relent in our resolve to get justice and we will explore and deploy every resource at our disposal to right this injustice in the collective interest of our dear State.”