Alleged Sack of Lawmakers: You lied against Appeal Court, Osun AG tells PDP

Osun State government yesterday condemned what it called the habitual proclivity of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to mislead members of the public.

In its official position over claims by the PDP that the Court of Appeal in Akure, last Friday, sacked all federal and state constituencies’ lawmakers from the state elected in 2011, the state government, through its Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Wale Afolabi, said the recent brouhaha sponsored by the PDP in its deliberate misrepresentation of facts and distortion of the decision of the Court of Appeal on suit concerning Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and Mr. Rufus Oluwatoyin Akeju vs. Peoples Democratic Party – Appeal No. CA/AK/46/2011 called for sober reflection.

Saying that his office had obtained a certified true copy of the judgement of the Akure court, the Attorney General argued that though the freedom of expression permits opinions over decisions of courts, the right does not give room for deliberate manipulation of facts.

The Attorney General stated, “We have obtained a certified true copy of the ruling of the Court of Appeal delivered on Friday, October 10, 2014, carefully read and digested the three-page ruling and are appalled to note that no sentence or paragraph of the said ruling decided any issue pertaining to the 2011 election of any member of the House of Assembly or National Assembly.

“In no part of the ruling did the Court of Appeal nullify any election but rather held that the Notice of Appeal filed by INEC was incompetent and thereby struck out the said Notice of Appeal”.

The substantive suit is still pending before the Federal High Court while appeals by other parties on the same interlocutory injunction are still pending at the Court of Appeal up till this moment.