On Saturday, September 30, the Ogun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal gave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate within the March 18, 2023 governorship election a actuality examine, throwing out their frivolous, vexatious and error-laden petition in opposition to Governor Dapo Abiodun and the All Progressives Congress (APC). In its unanimous judgment that lasted greater than 11 hours , the tribunal struck out the petition for being “incompetent, defective, disjunctive and lacking merit.” The three members of the panel, headed by Justice Hamidu Kunaza, held that the petitioners failed to show their allegations of non-compliance, overvoting, disenfranchisement of voters and corrupt practices in the course of the polls. Said panel: “On the whole, the petitioners have not successfully proved the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act and have not discharged the burden of proof”. The panel made it clear that there was no direct proof to show that voters had been disenfranchised, that not one of the witnesses established the allegation of corrupt practices in opposition to Governor Abiodun, and that the petitioners failed to present that the governor was tried, arraigned and convicted within the United States. Said Justice Kunaza mentioned, “I uphold the election of Dapo Abiodun as the duly elected governor of Ogun State in the March 18 election.” And then the petitioners shed hypocritical tears, bowed by disgrace and mired in their very own malfeasance.

The judgment couldn’t have gone the opposite method, as a result of the petitioners turned the March 18 election, which they approached with desperation, right into a joke in court docket, claiming that Governor Abiodun’s declaration as governor by INEC was merely purported. This, coming from a celebration whose vote shopping for antics had been unmasked for all to see, and whose candidate continues to be on the run weeks after the Federal Government charged him with legal conspiracy, vote shopping for and electoral subversion, was certainly unusual. Details concerning the verve bank cards issued within the identify of the candidate’s late mom, preloaded with N10,000 every and distributed to induce voters in the course of the election, in addition to the monetary establishments that aided the crime, are all within the public area, along with the testimonies of key witnesses and media studies of the arrests made in the course of the election by safety companies. Vote patrons caught of their ignoble observe went to court docket to accuse Governor Abiodun of vote shopping for. They boasted to no finish that the tribunal was going to ignore regulation and logic and award them undeserved victory, and got here to court docket premises with tune and dance, hoping to reap the place they didn’t sow, a bunch of political marauders and pirates selling the monetization of the electoral course of as a grand tactic. They claimed that they scored nearly all of lawful votes after APC’s illegal votes are deducted and their very own excluded votes added, however they by no means proved the illegal votes credited to Abiodun or the supply of their excluded votes, even because the figures within the petition (63,015 and 35,228) conflicted with the figures of their witness’ report (62,998 and 34,368). Never within the historical past of election petitioning within the nation has a tribunal been beset with such a load of junk, puerile arguments and tortured logic.

For Governor Abiodun, all of that is no shock. Throughout his political profession, he has confronted adversity. Nigerians can’t have forgotten the political landmines put in his method when he ran for governor in 2019. His posters had been torn and his supporters, recognized by their yellow vests, harassed and hounded. Even when he received election, he acquired no hand over notes, and the open-roof car he used throughout inauguration was borrowed from one other state. The challenges he has confronted since March 18 are eerily comparable to these he confronted in 2019 when the then political Establishment sought to change his future with out success. The lesson, fairly merely, is that anybody who needs to triumph should face adversity. As they are saying, nothing good comes straightforward. If he had acquired a second time period with out adversity, lots of these thanking God on his behalf now would probably not have appreciated what God has accomplished for him. Given what he confronted earlier than his first swearing in, many might be forgiven for believing that he can be allowed to govern in peace. But that was not the case. His predecessor, who declared him his arch enemy, began campaigns of calumny across the state, declaring that he (Abiodun) wouldn’t get a second time period of workplace. Like he did in 2019, Ibikunle Amosun acquired a candidate put in in an opposition occasion, ADC, and kicked off frenetic campaigns throughout the state, vowing to unseat him (Abiodun) and calling him names.

As Amosun rode his insurgent practice, his main challenger within the March 18 2023 polls, because the nation would later uncover by means of the costs most popular in opposition to him by the Federal Government, was perfecting plans to purchase votes. As if that was not sufficient, former Governor Gbenga Daniel, a person whom he (Abiodun) had helped to safe a senatorial seat and help with all mandatory logistics, made a 360 levels flip in opposition to him on the governorship polls, canvassing help for the opposition in all Ijebu/Remo axis. Many folks believed that Abiodun was completed; some appointees clandestinely labored in opposition to him. But he triumphed. And then got here the tribunal battle when the adversaries, deploying their large monetary battle chest in service of political propaganda, and utilizing hack and employed writers closely mobilized with bribes, dominated the airwaves, proclaiming their ‘impending victory’ over the governor and his occasion. But on the eleventh hour, simply because the timeline for meting out with electoral petitions was about to finish, the Ogun Election Petitions Tribunal delivered a landmark judgment that uncovered the shenanigans of his adversaries. Anyone backed by God will at all times triumph, regardless of the opposition.

The folks of Ogun State know that their governor means effectively; they know that he means to change the face of growth within the state, constructing infrastructure and attracting investments. The future guarantees to be thrilling.

Akpagbo despatched this piece by means of [email protected]