Appeal court judgment throws APC into disarray

Has the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun state lost all its positions in the national assembly and state house of assembly by the implications an appeal court judgment on Friday?

According to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), all the seats have now become vacant following the verdict by the appeal court sitting in Akure, Ondo state, dismissing an appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Osun state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Toyin Akeju, against an earlier judgement of the federal high court, Osogbo.

Akeju (pictured), who was allegedly a personal assistant to APC leader, Bola Tinubu, had conducted the elections in 2011 which saw APC (then known as the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN) make a clean sweep of the seats.

APC won all the three senate seats, all the nine seats in the house of reps and all the seats in the Osun house of assembly.

In February 2011, the PDP had secured an order from a federal high court in Osogbo, restraining Akeju from presiding over the affairs of INEC in Osun state, accusing the REC of partisanship.

However, INEC and Akeju approached the appeal court in Akure to nullify the judgement of the lower court.

Leading a five-man panel to decide the case, Justice Mi Sheila rejected the appeal and declared the entire process null and void, saying the notice of appeal was not properly filed.

The appeal court also upheld the judgement of the federal high court and directed that it should be complied with.

In a statement by the PDP director of media and strategy in Osun state, Mr Diran Odeyemi, the party said the ruling of the appellate court had vindicated the position of PDP on the INEC chief.

“By implication now, all elections conducted into the state house of assembly, house of representatives and the senate have become null and void,” Odeyemi said.

“This landmark ruling has vindicated PDP’s stance that Akeju, based on his relationship with one of the APC national leaders, Mr. Bola Tinubu, has no moral justification to conduct the election.

“This is a welcome decision and all the APC lawmakers who are going about in a borrowed garment have come to their wits end. This is victory for democracy because though the wheel of justice grinds slowly, justice has been dispensed at the end of the day.

“We urge INEC, to demonstrate that it is truly independent by obeying this ruling and sack Akeju without further delay, because it has been proven by court of competent jurisdiction that the controversial REC is a card-carrying member of APC and not fit to preside over election anywhere in the country.”

But APC has challenged the authenticity of the judgment.

“‎This is a very funny development. A judgment of that magnitude and important to our democratic culture was to be delivered in Akure and was unknown to anybody except Omisore’s PDP,” APC said in a statement issued by its director of publicity, research and strategy in Osun state, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi.

“Media correspondents in Akure only got the news of the so-called judgment from Omisore’s office in Osogbo. Something terribly sinister is going on here.

“It is even funnier that when correspondents in Akure got the news from Omisore’s office in Osun, they rushed to the appeal court to get the judgment, but the court was said to have closed for the day, after supposedly having delivered a judgment that was unknown to the public.

“We are only waiting to see the content of that judgment ‎before we can make any comment.”