Court of Ogun: Stop sending emissaries to Adebutu's father - PDP, APC exchange words

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State has warned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop sending envoys to Chief Kessington Adebutu, father of the PDP candidate in the elections from March 18 in the State, Ladi Adebutu.

The PDP warned that the APC should take the matter to the Electoral Court instead of sending dignitaries to implore the business tycoon to convince his son to withdraw his petition.

This was in a statement made available to DAILY POST by PDP Publicity Secretary in Ogun, Akinloye Bankole, on Monday.

Earlier, APC spokesperson in Ogun, Tunde Oladunjoye, accused Adebutu of intimidating the judiciary.

Oladunjoye told Adebutu that he could not be a petitioner and a judge at the same time, saying the election petition was not won on social media.

The APC leader said, "Adebutu's persistent intimidation of the judiciary, peddling lies against the government and inciting citizens, is the worst version of what flawed petitioners are doing to give non-existent hope to gullible supporters to keep them under control and safely stored."

He described Adebutu's petition as nothing but foul smoke that will be blown away.

“They were fantasizing about votes to be deducted from APC votes! It's laughable. The decent thing to do is for Adebutu to refrain from any propaganda,” Oladunjoye said.

Responding, the PDP said that Adebutu, together with the party, approached the Electoral Petitions Court with petitions, to register its displeasure at the level of partisanship, anomalies, manipulations and several irregularities discovered during the 2023 elections that just ended in the state.

The PDP spokesperson said it is a disgraceful act for Oladunjoye and the Ogun APC team to denounce Adebutu for exercising his basic human rights, pointing out that the Nigerian constitution takes into account the freedom of speech and expression, which Adebutu did safely.

"That Oladunjoye started crying while the trials haven't started, isn't it a new buffoonery to cause distractions, especially when the truth catches up with them daily?" »

Bankole argued that an electoral court is never a military zone and that anyone who does not have a skeleton in their closet should not cower but agree to be served with the petitions and not wait for an order of substituted service be granted.

"If the APC truly won the election beyond a reasonable doubt, then there is no need for the APC to twist narratives, stir up feelings around the justice system and shout to scandal when nothing happened.

“The APC should prepare for the court trials and stop troubling the public with lies and also stop sending emissaries to the Adebutu family patriarch to plead. judiciary, the common man's only hope, to perform his constitutional duties. After all, we are a constitutional democracy," Bankole noted.

He added that "the APC is known to intimidate and attack peaceful individuals, in order to prevent people from exposing their wrongful acts, hence their new attempt to use Oladunjoye as a microphone to orchestrate and provoke the post-election chaos.”

Bankole alleged that Oladunjoye "is supposed to be arrested somewhere and answer questions touching on corruption and reckless dereliction of duty during his inglorious days as chairman of the council; he should not be here pretending to be more Catholic than Pope in order to massage his principal's ego.

"He has been a serial traitor and cheat. Even recently, he has been exposed by members of his party for embezzling campaign funds.

“The iniquity perpetrated by the APC in the just-concluded general election is visible in the public eye, there is nowhere to hide, as we have enough video evidence of their robbery and of their brazen harassment deployed to subvert the popular wish of innocent citizens."