The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has vehemently rejects the inclusion of Hon. Justice Joseph Olubunmi K. Oyewole as a member of the Osun state governorship Election Appeal Tribunal.
While briefing journalists in Abuja Tuesday, PDP national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the party’s position was predicated on the fact that Hon. Justice Oyewole has strong connections with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is an interested party in the Appeal.
Ologbondiyan made it known that, “The PDP has already petitioned the President of the Court, objecting to the inclusion of Hon Justice Oyewole in the appeal panel based on the clear likelihood of his being biased against the person of our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke and the PDP, under which he contested the 2018 Osun state governorship election.”
He explained that their grounds of objection against Justice Oyewole’s membership of the appeal panel was because, ” He is an indigene of Osun state and he had served as a High Court Judge of Lagos state and had thus served under the administration of Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, (the national leader of the APC) while he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos state.
He added “When the seat of the Chief Judge of Osun State became vacant, some years back, upon the retirement of Hon. Justice G.O Ojo, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu insisted on having his anointed candidate, Hon Justice J.O.K Oyewole, on the Judiciary of Osun State at all cost. It took the courageous intervention of the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Murktar to prevail that the most senior judge of Osun state judiciary should be so appointed.
He said: “When a seat became vacant at the Court of Appeal, the name of Hon. Justice Oyewole was pushed forward by Senator Tinubu, using the slot of Osun State and thus, Justice Oyewole became Justice of the Court of Appeal.
“As a party, we do not have confidence in Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole. So the PDP vehemently objects to his inclusion, as he is likely to be biased against our party and our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke”.
Ologbondiyan demanded the President of the Court of Appeal to immediately replace Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole with another justice of the Court of Appeal, without any affiliation with Osun state, out of the over 90 eminent Justices of the Court of Appeal.
