The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State has announced that their Deputy Governorship candidate, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, will be contesting the outcome of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
In a statement sent by his media aide Adelani Azeez, Akinlade claimed that the petitioners had anticipated the tribunal’s ruling on Saturday and asked party members to be calm.
The appeal submitted by Adebutu and the PDP challenging Dapo Abiodun’s election was reportedly denied by the tribunal on Saturday due to a lack of merit,
“As a people and party, we must take solace in three facts,” Akinlade stated in response to the ruling: “first, that the Tribunal is the court of first instance; second, that we are blessed with a resolute leader; and third, that time, which is the determinant of all things, is on our side.”
In 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.”
As he urged PDP supporters and Ogun State residents to view the verdict as a temporary setback, he added, “from the beginning, we predicted this outcome, considering the set of individuals we are engaging.”
He reflected on the past and said, “In 2022, they hurled everything they had at us, got our candidates and party (PDP) removed off INEC list with the goal of stopping us from participating in the 2023 general elections. They made it sound like there was no resistance in Ogun State, but we prayed to God, put our faith in our lawyers, and won in court.
In March of 2023, after our members had been detained and our leader had been blackmailed and threatened, we won at the polls.
“Contrary to all expectations, we successfully fought our case in front of the election petition tribunal by calling 94 witnesses, including experts, and submitting over 200,000 certified papers as proof.
“We said from the beginning that the alleged issue of vote buying was nothing more than a ploy to distract us,” the winning party’s spokesperson said in a statement released on September 30, 2023.
He continued, “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 that we will explore and deploy every resource at our disposal to right this injustice in the collective interest of our dear State.”
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