Posted by By AKEEB ALARAPE, Ibadan on
Immediate past governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasidi Ladoja on Wednesday, faulted the ruling of the election petitions tribunal that upheld the victory of his erstwhile deputy and now governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, saying the judiciary has set another bad pace in the political history of the state.
…As ex-commissioner rallies support for Akala
Immediate past governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasidi Ladoja on Wednesday, faulted the ruling of the election petitions tribunal that upheld the victory of his erstwhile deputy and now governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, saying the judiciary has set another bad pace in the political history of the state.
Similarly, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Tam David-West, described the ruling as a disservice to Nigeria and its nascent democracy, saying the judges erred as was witnessed in the twelve two-third judgment that gave victory to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the 1983 presidential election.
Ladoja, who spoke with newsmen from his base in London, stated that the dissenting ruling by one of the four-member tribunal clearly gave the panel away that something actually went wrong somewhere.
He said: 'Oyo State election tribunal has set another bad pace-setting record again. This is the first time we are having a dissenting judgment in all the governorship elections so far determined by the tribunals across the country.
'Then, watching the delivery of the judgment by the panel's chairman, Justice Teni Yusuf-Hassan, one would want to ask why the judge was panicky and the judgment was not flowing compared to the delivery of the dissenting judgment. But if that is how the judgment will go, the judiciary has to take full responsibilities for whatever happens."
The ex-governor also picked hole in the statement of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, that all the royal fathers in the state were happy with the judgment, saying that the Alaafin and his entourage constituted only one tenth of the traditional rulers in the state. He pointed out that the Alaafin was only playing politics with his visit as he was looking for government patronage on his quest for the permanent chairmanship of the state council of Obas and chiefs.
In his own reaction to the tribunal ruling, David-West said that the judges had ended up disgracing Nigeria as a nation, save for the dissenting judgment. He said the overwhelming malpractices and the volume of disputed votes were enough reasons for the judges to call for the cancellation of the election result.
His words: 'Tam David-West had never joined a political party and I am not joining one. But you cannot practice partisan politics without justice. So, whatever comment I am making, I am making it as Tam David-West, lecturer, fisherman, operating from Ibadan, unsoiled by political driven motive or whatever.
'The judgment as delivered on Monday does not make us happy as Nigerians. I don't know Akala. I don't know Ajimobi or whoever.
I only know Nigeria. My party is Nigeria. My manifesto is Nigeria. So, that Oyo State judgment should not make anybody happy. I feel so sorry for Nigeria. Because, it was clear, even to a moron that the three judges cannot be right. They said, if I got it right, that there was a difference of 28,000 votes but that 179, 000 votes were at dispute. And they ignore that? They should have done the right thing by looking at the overwhelming malpractices and ask Akala to go and re-contest.
'But the fact that they didn't do that and sustained the flawed election; it is a great disservice to democracy. It is a great disservice to Nigeria. This is where the exception proves the rule. Majority is not always right.
'That minority judgment is solid. The minority judgment is scholarly. It is classy. I don't know the judge, but I, David-West, doff my hat for him. For having saved Nigeria, I think, he let the world see that there are some saner voices in the country. So, that minority judgment has saved the image of Nigeria that not all judges would lose their thinking cap."
Meanwhile, a former commissioner in Oyo State, during the administration of Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, Dr. Morohunkola Thomas, has called on the people to join hands with Akala in moving the state to the promised land.
Thomas, who equally spoke with newsmen from his base in London, congratulated the strongman of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and victorious Governor Akala for a well-deserved victory at the tribunal, urging the governor to be magnanimous in victory by being father to all and sundry in the state.
'The people of Oyo State should forget the past and cooperate with the administration of Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala in his efforts to move the state forward. Also, Governor Akala should be magnanimous in victory by accommodating all shades of opinion by being father to all. I congratulate him and congratulate our revered Papa, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, for a deserved victory," the ex-commissioner stated.