The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State has described its final victory and that of Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji at the Supreme Court as an evidence of their wide acceptance by the people of Ekiti State
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the decisions of both the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which had earlier ruled that Engineer Segun Oni and his party, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, failed to prove their case against the victory of APC and its candidate at the 18 June 2022 guber election in Ekiti State. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who delivered the judgment on behalf of other Supreme Court Justices, said the Segun Oni/SDP’s case expressly stood dismissed.
Appraising the judgment, APC said the back-to-back legal victory recorded from the Election Tribunal to the Apex Court was not accidental, but a confirmation of the people’s acceptance of both the party and the governor, which culminated in the landslide victory recorded at the poll, and which cannot be taken for granted at any point of the present administration.
The party’s message was conveyed through a statement by its State Publicity Secretary, Segun Dipe, on behalf of the State Chairman, Barrister Paul Omotosho. It stated that with the Supreme Court ruling, which was the final adjudication on the matter, all parties must have come to accept the verdict as that of the people of the State, and as the authentic.
Dipe described Engr. Segun Oni and SDP’s decision to question the outcome of the election as that which stood logic in the head. He observed that the legal victory, which now landslide and total, was an evidence enough that Segun Oni and his party had selfishly embarked on a fruitless legal misadventure with the intention to set Ekiti State backward and burning.
“The whole world can now see that the June 18, 2022 election was no fluke. We were the best party, we had the best candidate in (now) Gov. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, codenamed BAO, and we ran the best campaign, based on concrete achievements of the then administration of Dr. John Kayode Fayemi. Add to this the fact that every Ekiti son and daughter was tired of the policy summersaults of the past and chose to give continuity a try, instead of gambling with the fate of the burgeoning state, then one would understand why the result would not have been anything otherwise,” Dipe said.
APC said it welcomed the unanimous decisions of the Justices of the Supreme Court who sat on the matter, as it aligned with the unanimous decision of the judges who sat on it at the Court of Appeal, which also aligned with the unanimous decision of the three judges who listened to it at the Tribunal stage. That there was no split decision at any stage, was a proof of a no-case submission, and this has given us the impetus to want to take democracy more seriously and the governor to want to provide more dividends of democracy to the people.
“APC is the only living party in Ekiti today and the one with a pact with the people. What more? We have in the saddle a governor who is a people person and has not just listening hears, but doing spirit. He is determined to make the people his priority and concentrate on projects that will positively touch their lives.”
Meanwhile, the party said it was stretching its arms of fellowship to those who were disgruntled and asked them to join hands with the administration of Gov. Oyebanji in moving Ekiti State to the next level.
“With the victory of our party at the national level, our dear state remains connected to the “national grid” and as such will not be denied any opportunity to improve the lives of the people,” Dipe said.