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The All Progressives Congress(APC) in Oyo State has described the planned appointment of caretaker chairmen for the local councils in the state as a civilian coup.
The party in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. AbdulAzeez Olatunde, said it is “very unfortunate that brigands and usurpers are back in government in the state.”
He said the party’s attention was drawn to the “cacophony of falsehoods by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the state in their ill-advised attempt to spin lies as truth for the public”
According to Olatunde: “While the uninformed might be deceived by this latest PDP rant, let them be reminded that the people of the pacesetter state are better informed than they think they know.
“Firstly, they claimed that the local government elections conducted by the Sen. Abiola Ajimobi’s administration was illegal for their conjured reasons.
“The simple question to ask them is which court of law has declared the election as illegal? None.
“Rather, all the election tribunal that handled resultant petitions, the Oyo State High Court and the Federal High Court that heard the multiple suits filed by the PDP apologists that sought to stop the election were dismissed, either for incompetence, abuse or being illegal.”
The APC stated that depite the claims of the PDP that the election were illegal, it cannot point out any court that ever pronounced the election as illegal.
“Perhaps, the uninformed arm-chair pronouncement of Governor Seyi Makinde is their definition of what a legal is. A civilian coup d’etat.
“Again, the PDP empty barrel claim that the election were held in defiance of a subsisting Court order!!
“Again, we are asking for the said order, if any exists?
“These lies of a phantom ‘court order’ was what Governor Seyi Makinde fabricated to justify his illegal dissolution of governance structures at the local government level.
“The question now is for Govenor Seyi Makinde to show the world the supposed order of injunction, if any,” the statement said.
Olatunde said the PDP cannot prove that the local goverment election conducted during the tenure of Governor Abiola Ajimobi was held against a court order, adding that there was no such order made by any court stopping the election.
The Publlicity Secretary stated that it is an “irresponsible attempt” to colour the truth to claim that the election ought to have been restricted to the 33 local government councils and not including the 35 local council development areas.
He said: “If that was a justified excuse, why did the governor then dissolve both the 33 LG alongside the 35 LCDA? Why didn’t Governor Makinde leave the councils?
“Furthermore, is Governor Seyi Makinde now arrogating the power of the judiciary to himself? If Governor Makinde and the PDP claim that they discovered that a wrong exist, is that not the reason for the existence of the judiciary?
“In any case, the PDP and Governor Seyi Makinde has already disobeyed the subsisting judgement of the High Court of Oyo State and ‘Kangaroo court’ and also described the Supreme Court judgement followed by the High Court of Oyo State as ‘arrangee judgement.’
” Such is the despised disposition of Governor Seyi Makinde and the PDP for the rule of law in Oyo State and the judiciary, since May 29th, 2019.
“Let no one be deceived by this ill-fabricated PDP bag of lies to justify existing illegalities and their proposed illegal appointment of caretaker administration in the local governments.The courts have pronounced such a law and practice as not only illegal but also unconstitutional.
“This has been the pronouncement from Supreme Court down to the recent decision of the Oyo State High Court. If Governor Seyi Makinde and his PDP were certain of their ‘bags of lies,’ why not wait for the Court of Appeal judgment.
“It is our believe that Governor Seyi Makinde and the PDP are not sure of getting favorable judgment for their case at the Court of Appeal, hence choosing the option of blatant disobedience of the court.”
Olatunde said the party would not accept any “such illegality” to be foisted on the people, noting that it will utilise all lawful and legal means at her disposal to resist the “planned illegal PDP caretaker administration in our local governments when elected administration has not completed their mandate.”
He added:”If Govenor Seyi Makinde chooses to hide under the cloak of immunity, the following categories are not immuned; that is members of the State Assembly, Attorney General, nominated caretaker members and all their co-conspirators.They shall be made to face the long arm of the justice swiftly under our laws.”
The party noted that if President Muhammadu Buhari does not disturb the governor from enjoying his mandate, it is important that the governor also abide by his oath of office by allowing constitutional rules of the third tier of government in the state to flourish.
It added that if the governor carried on with his plan to appoint caretaker chairmen for the councils, it will be an invitation to anarchy and chaos.