Shina Abubakar, Osogbo

Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has tasked traditional rulers in the state not to allow weaponisation of fake information to cause crisis in the state as presently employed by the All Progressives Congress, APC over the local government council crisis.

Speaking at a meeting with traditional rulers held inside the Finance Building in Osogbo, Governor Adeleke said the yet to be resolved local government crisis was a deliberate ambush by elements in the APC to burn the state down.

The Governor who reeled out the different litigation over the local government council election in 2022 and the one recently held last February, stressed that the Appeal Court judgment of February the APC relied on never gave any order to reinstate the sacked council officials.

According to him, the recent Supreme Court judgement on Rivers State local government further affirmed the Federal High Court judgement that sacked the council officials over non-compliance of the poll with the electoral act.

“Our state was ambushed suddenly by elements within the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose agenda was to burn down the state. Without any basis or foundation in law, the APC executed a deadly plot. The evil agenda is to illegally take over the council secretariats based on a court of appeal ruling that has no consequential orders nor contain anything about reinstatement of sacked chairmen.

“In the case of Akure appeal court ruling, PDP has nothing to appeal against to the Supreme Court as there was no consequential order and as the court has directly ignored reinstatement request as mere academic exercise.

“The Supreme Court ruling on Rivers local government election has clearly confirmed that the Osun Yes/No election was conducted in violation of the electoral act and therefore remains null and void. The latest judgement of the apex court affirm that there is no legal ground for the Yes/No chairmen to continue to illegally occupy the secretariats.

“I appeal to our royal fathers to further educate their subjects on the facts of the controversies. We are a community of enlightened citizenry. We should not allow fake news to be weaponized to destroy our dear state”, he said.

Reacting former Special Adviser on Education in the state and an APC chieftain, Mr Jamiu Olawumi described as unfortunate the refusal of the governor to follow simple rule of law but resorted to orchestrating violence, saying the governor would soon be tired of crying around and do the needful.

“It is unfortunate that we have Governor Ademola Adeleke and Governor Fubara within the PDP fold. While Fubara is following the rule of law and obeying court judgement, Adeleke is simply running around the bush, lying to the people.

“The traditional rulers he cried to know the truth because they are knowledgeable and running to them does not change the judgement of the Appeal Court. I believe when he is tired he would do the needful.

“Instead of his party going to the Supreme Court to seek redress on the judgement of the Appellate Court, he is asking that the APC which has judgement in its favour to do his job and that of his party. Time would soon run against them”, he added.