- The PDP has rejected the inclusion of Justice J.O Oyewole as a member of the Osun governorship election appeal
- PDP said the decision is based on possibility that Justice Oyewole would be biased against the party and its candidate
- According to the party, the judge had served as a High Court Judge of Lagos state under the administration of Bola Tinubu (the national leader of the APC) while he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos state
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, April 23, said it has rejected the inclusion of Justice J.O Oyewole as a member of the Osun state governorship election appeal panel.
The party alleged that Justice Oyewole has strong connections with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is an interested party in the appeal.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, April 23, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the PDP has already petitioned the president of the court, objecting to the inclusion of Justice Oyewole in the appeal panel.
Ologbondiyan said the party's petition is based on the clear likelihood of Oyewole being biased against the person of our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke and the PDP, under which he contested the 2018 Osun state governorship election.
He said the grounds on which the PDP premised is objection of the justice's inclusion is that Oyewole is an indigene of Osun state who had served as a High Court Judge of Lagos state and had thus served under the administration of Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, (the national leader of the APC) while he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos state.
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Ologbondiyan said: "When the seat of the Chief Judge of Osun State became vacant, some years back, upon the retirement of Hon. Justice G.O Ojo, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu insisted on having his anointed candidate, Hon Justice J.O.K Oyewole, on the Judiciary of Osun State at all cost."
He recalled that it took the intervention of the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Murktar to prevail that the most senior judge of Osun state judiciary should be so appointed.
"When a seat became vacant at the Court of Appeal, the name of Hon. Justice Oyewole was pushed forward by Senator Tinubu, using the slot of Osun State and thus, Justice Oyewole became Justice of the Court of Appeal.
"It is therefore a fact known to us and members of the public that Hon. Justice Oyewole has a strong connection with the APC and its leader, Senator Ahmed Tinubu. As such he should not sit as a panel member for a governorship election dispute between the PDP and the APC," Ologbondiyan said.
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Ologbondiyan added that the PDP has no confidence in Justice Oyewole's judgement and vehemently objects to his inclusion.
"The PDP therefore demands that the President of the Court of Appeal immediately replace Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole with another justice of the Court of Appeal, without any affiliation with Osun state, out of the over 90 eminent Justices of the Court of Appeal.
"Our party and candidate holds that justice must not only be done, but also manifestly seen to be done in this matter. Indeed, an insistence on Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole’s inclusion in the Appeal Panel may confirm our fears that his name could have been deliberately included so that he can carry out a special assignment against our candidate and party in the appeal," he concluded.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the PDP had said the alleged admission by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)'s presiding officers in Borno and Yobe states that the result of Saturday, February 23, presidential election was transmitted to the server of the commission is a vindication that the polls were rigged in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party insisted that more confessions were imminent, noting that the wheel of justice would turn the tide in favour of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar.
Legit.ng gathered that the deputy national publicity secretary of the party, Diran Odeyemi, said Nigerians voted overwhelmingly for Atiku at the polls even as he accused INEC of manipulating the results in favour of the President Buhari.
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