Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has described as fake news the report that the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, reinstated sacked chairmen and councillors elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress in 2022.
The governor, therefore, argued that the APC officials, who claimed to have occupied all local government secretariats across Osun, remained sacked by the order of the Federal High Court in the state and vowed to use the rule of law in getting “the illegal occupants” out of the council offices.
Adeleke made this known on Thursday while briefing the Osun State Council of Traditional Rulers at its meeting in Osogbo on the crisis that has greeted the struggle for the control of the local government areas of the state.
Clarifying that he was not responsible for the sacking of the APC officials he described as “Yes/No council chairmen”, the governor explained that a Federal High Court removed them from office in October 2022 while his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola, was still in office.
Addressing the monarchs, Adeleke said, “We are all aware that after I defeated Mr. Gboyega Oyetola in July 2022, he hurriedly organised a Yes/No local government election. Two political parties, PDP and APP went to Court to challenge the arrangement for the election.
“So there were two separate suits, PDP case was filed before the promulgation of Local Government Election Law of 2022. In both of these cases, the Federal High Court decided that the process and procedure leading to the election was flawed.
“The court in both cases declared the election null and void and of no consequences and removed the persons who were purported to have been elected through that flawed election. The Court nullified and ordered that those who were purportedly elected vacate the office.
“In the first appeal against the APP judgement which sacked the Yes/No Council chairmen, the APC and the APM filed an appeal but did not pursue the case. They went to sleep as lawyers would say. The respondent in the case which included the PDP, sought to dismount the appeal. So the Court of Appeal subsequently dismissed the APC appeal.
“Our fathers, since the appeal was dismissed, the judgement sacking the Yes/No chairmen remains valid. As at today, the sack order has never been vacated by any court of law including the second appeal against the PDP judgement.”
He accused APC of plans to burn down the state, claiming that the opposition party’s “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.”
The governor after presenting “the facts of the developments” to the traditional rulers, appealed to them to further educate their subjects on the facts of the controversies, adding, “We are a community of enlightened citizenry. We should not allow fake news to be weaponized to destroy our dear state.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the Osun Traditional Council, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, expressed displeasure at the deadly violence that the local council crisis caused and called for peace from all parties.
“We are also not happy with the LG crisis in the state, we abhor violence and Osun is a peaceful state, a status that must be maintained irrespective of the issues in contention.”
