APC Did Not Authorise Petition Against Adeleke – Osun Legal Team

The legal team of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has disowned a petition purportedly filed on behalf of the party and its governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, challenging Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the August 15 governorship election.

One of the leaders of the APC legal team, Adekunle Adegoke (SAN), said neither the party nor Oyebamiji authorised the filing of any petition before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

Adegoke, who spoke exclusively with PUNCH Online on Monday, said the legal team met with Oyebamiji and other party leaders shortly after the election results were announced to review the outcome and determine the appropriate next step.

He explained that although the lawyers identified grounds upon which the election could potentially be challenged, they advised the candidate not to approach the tribunal.

According to him, the decision was taken after consultations and was primarily aimed at reducing tension and allowing peace to prevail in the state.

He said the legal team, which has existed for more than seven years, included four Senior Advocates of Nigeria—Biodun Layoonu, Yomi Aliyu, Kunle Adegoke and Muritala Abdulrasheed—as well as other legal practitioners and law professors, including Prof Mojeed Alabi.

Adegoke said the team was aware of possible irregularities in the election but deliberately chose not to pursue litigation.

“Right from the second day of the election, at the level of the legal team being led by about 4 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Dr Biodun Layoonu (SAN), Dr Yomi Aliyu (SAN), myself, Kunle Adegoke (SAN) and Dr Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN). We also have other legal luminaries, Professors of law in the legal team, Prof Mojeed Alabi and many others, and we advised our client that the best in this circumstance is for us not to go to the tribunal.

“The legal team has been in existence for more than seven years now. When we are going into an election, and the result of the election is being announced, we know where there are loopholes, we know what we can challenge. At this particular point in time, we want to prove to the minds of the people that at the level of the APC, we are not termagants; we are not just litigious people who are just interested in causing brouhaha in the populace. We don’t have anything personal against Nurudeen Adeleke the governor, or any other person in another party, whether PDP or Accord.

“We are principled, and when we want to challenge or fight for something, we fight on the basis of principle. That is one thing we want to make clear to the people. And when we decided that we are not going to the Tribunal, we needed to let our client understand why we had taken that decision. We took our client through a gamut of our findings. It’s not like maybe the election was free; it doesn’t mean there were no malpractices. There are valid grounds to challenge the result of the election, and we decided to let the populace rest.

“Let there be some peace and our client said yes; if it’s going to take us another four years to get things together for the people of Osun, let us allow it. And that is the decision we took.

“Right from the second day, 16th of August, when the result of the election was announced, that is why we allowed time to play out a little before our client came out and congratulated the Governor Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke,” Adegoke said.

He argued that Oyebamiji’s decision to congratulate Adeleke further demonstrated that the candidate had accepted the outcome and had no intention of secretly pursuing a legal challenge.

“Our client, having willingly, without pressure, without duress, congratulated Governor Adeleke, do you now think it will be legitimate as a man of honour for Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji to go behind and authorise the filing of a petition?” Adegoke asked.

Describing the purported petition as lacking legitimacy, the lawyer said the APC legal team had formally distanced itself from the documents.

“The petition is just a piece of paper without good substance. No good petition will come from a seasoned election petition lawyer that will contain such a penchant for context. It is never done.

“I want to be on record that the APC legal team has denounced the bundle of papers filed by some individuals masquerading as APC lawyers. It was not authorised by APC as a party or its candidate,” he said.

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