The Oyo State chapter of the Accord Party (AP) has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, against distortion of facts in the cases filed before the election petitions tribunal and Court of Appeal, by its gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Senator Rasheed Ladoja.
The party gave the warning yesterday in a statement titled, "Don’t set Oyo State on fire", and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. Nureni Aderemi Adeniran.
The party said the story carried on Thursday by a national daily titled, “Court Upholds Ajimobi’s Election”, on the judgement delivered on Wednesday by the Ibadan Division of the Court of Appeal, was nothing but distorting and twisting the court proceedings to mislead the general public.
He maintained that the APC in the state has a history of using the national daily to serve its purpose against the people, urging the newspapers to always be guided by the Journalism Code of Ethics especially Parts 1 and 3.
Adeniran insisted that the AP will continue to pass correct information to the public, warning the APC of the dire consequence of dishing out ‘blatant lies’ through the media to the public.
He said: “It is therefore necessary for AP to state what transpired and the party’s prayers before the court. The Appellate court sitting in Ibadan yesterday affirmed the decision of the Tribunal that dismissed the application of the petitioners which seek to submit the forensic report of the recounting of ballot papers for which they earlier got leave of the tribunal.
“The Appeal held that parties to a case cannot consent to contravene the law, that the verbal agreement that the counsel to the appellant based his argument on, is grossly insufficient, while the judges dismissed the objections raised by counsels to the respondents that the motion brought before the court by the appellant was not duly signed. The learned judges held that the motion was duly signed by leading counsel of the appellant R A Ogunwole (SAN), and therefore dismissed the objection.
“The ruling of the appellate court does not in anyway affect the substantive suit before the election tribunal as regards the election petition filed by the ACCORD and its flag bearer in 2015 governorship election in Oyo state, Senator Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja. The tribunal has not set aside any date for its ruling.”