Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on Friday described those protesting against the result of Osun State governorship election as being mentally unstable.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus were among the PDP leaders that staged a protest against the outcome of the election at the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
Aregbesola spoke with State House correspondents on Friday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
At the meeting with Buhari, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Election Campaign in Osun State and Governor of Kano State, Umaru Ganduje and Aregbesola, formally presented the Governor-elect of the Osun Election, Gboyega Oyetola to the President.
On the protest, Aregbesola said “I will not even respond to this because what you are referring to is a charade, an act of gross irresponsibility from people who ought to know that after an election, the only option left for every responsible citizen is to go to the tribunal.
“And again interestingly, the other party defeated in the election is already in tribunal. I don’t now know what the protest you are talking about is meant to do. If you are already in court and you are still doing a street protest either you are not mentally stable or you need psychiatric attention.” he said
On the purpose of the visit to the Villa, he said they came to thank Mr. President. “We came with the chairman of the party in the state and the deputy governor elect as well as the national chairman of the party to express our gratitude to the President.
“Yesterday we met with the national chairman to do the same. Before yesterday soon after the receipt of Certificate of Return by the two candidates who won the election to the offices of the governor and deputy governor on Wednesday indeed the President expressed joy and charged us not to relent in mobilizing our people to support his own election and the return of our parliamentarians at the state and national assemblies and made commitment that we will not rest again in mobilizing our people to victory in all the other subsequent elections.
“We let him know the challenges we face and we are very hopeful that with the support we got from him and all other critical stakeholders from the leadership at the national level to leadership at the regional level and the governors of the party in virtually all the states of the federation particularly in the North, I do not think there was any election in such an array of eminent Nigerians and personalities particularly governors who committed everything they have to ensure that their party got the upper hand in the election.”
“He noted our observations and he assured us that the party will continue to enjoy support with the administration. I want to use this medium to thank all progressives in Nigeria and to assure them that Osun has been the forerunner of victory for our party ever since and we shall continue to lead in telling Nigerians that our party to beat in all the elections.” he added
On his part, the Governor-elect, Oyetola promised to run a very transparent government in Osun State.
He said “I came to say a big thank you to Mr. President for the support he gave to us during the election and to thank the leadership of our party all over the country for being with us throughout the period and to assure him that by the grace of God, I must run a very transparent government.”
According to him, he would continue the good work already done by Aregbesola and the party in the state. “I will want to continue to consolidate on those achievements and improve on them in the area of infrastructure, health, in the area of particularly the economy and this is the time to look at the economy to ensure that we have the opportunity of their welfare being properly taken care of.
“It is a continuation of the legacies that he built. I believe that the people have confidence in our party, they believe in us and we will not abuse the opportunity given to us to continue to be in government.
“It is a continuous thing, we have actually been addressing that, recently we have paid about four months of salary backlog and I believe we will settle all the outstanding and we have started even paying full salary and I believe we will be able to sustain it by the grace of God. We will review our IGR to ensure that we are able to look inward for sustainability.” he said
Ganduje said “We came to thank the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the enabling environment for a true fair election in Osun State.
“We are here in order to present our Governor-elect to Mr. President and to thank him in what he has done in order to allow for free and fair election.” he added