Osun verdict: Tribunal’s decision democratic, follows rule of law — SDP Guber Candidate

News Agency Of Nigeria

March 22, 2019 9:16 PM

Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, the 2019 Lagos State Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate, says the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal followed the rule of law and was in defence of democracy.

Senator Ademola Adeleke

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Tribunal sitting in Abuja had on Friday declared Sen. Ademola Adeleke, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Sept. 22, 2018 Osun governorship election as winner.

The three-member panel said during its ruling that the re-run election that held on Sept. 27, 2018, was illegal.

The tribunal said Adeleke won the election at the first ballot on Sept. 22 and the re-run that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) devised to reach a final conclusion a week later was illegal.

Reacting, Pearse, a university teacher, told NAN that the tribunal had done the right thing to defend Nigerias democracy.

Now that the nation has the result as it should be, we thank God. Victory should be given to the right person.

All we want is for the tribunal to do the right thing, to say the truth and follow the rule of law. They have followed the rule of law here, we commend them.

The tribunal has been democratic in its decision, he said.

According to him, election results in all the places INEC will be conducting supplementary elections on Saturday should be conclusive in favour of the rightful winners.

ALSO READ: Tribunal declares PDP’s Ademola Adeleke winner of Osun governorship election, sacks APC's Oyetola

Pearse urged the commission to always do the right thing for conscience sake and avoid being manipulated by desperate politicians.

He advised the electoral umpire to work on cases of inconclusive elections, saying all fictitious inconclusive election results should be done away with in the interest of democracy.

News Agency Of Nigeria