Akala berates AC over tribunal judgement

By Jackson Udom - 30.03.2008

The Oyo State Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao- Akala ,has taken a swipe at the Action Congress’ (AC) comment condemning the decision of the Election Petition Tribunal to uphold his election.

He accused them of barefaced double – standard whereby they support the rule of law only when it suits the party. Akala’s position was contained in a press statement,signed by his Special Adviser, Public Communication, Prince Dotun Oyelade. According to Akala, “while the AC called for cancellation of votes in the four local government areas in Oyo State on the basis of invalid votes deducted, it described as quintessential justice, the nullification of Edo State election which was also based on the deduction of invalidated votes, which tally saw Comrade Oshiomole beat Governor Osunbor by 37,000 votes”.

“This two - faced hypocrisy, Akala noted, “has exposed the AC as a party that has turned the rule of law into a farcical and malleable theory that can be employed and discarded at will”. According to the statement, “the principle upon which the two rulings premised was basically the same, – that is the deduction of offending votes from the lot and awarding victory to the candidate that has satisfied the provision of the constitution and the electoral act 2006. While Akala is the beneficiary of that principle in Oyo State, Comrade Oshiomole, benefited in Edo State”.

The release said that “it must be noted that the Edo State tribunal nullified results in two local government areas based on the recommendation of the State Electoral Commission, while such a thing never happened in Oyo State.

In Oyo State, the release added, “the petitioner did not contest the veracity of election results in 29 local government areas but contested only that of four local councils, and after the invalidation,the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) was still leading handsomely.”

The statement also said that “the petitioner in Oyo State knew the fragility of their case, hence they prayed the tribunal only to nullify the election results in the four local councils and not to return Senator Ajimobi as the governor, because they knew he did not merit such award.”