The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state Monday accused Gov Seyi Makinde of alleged executive lawlessness, dangerous politicking and moral indecency.
APC made the allegations in statement in Ibadan personally signed by its State Caretaker Chairman, Chief Akin Oke, Oyo.
The party in the statement alleged the governor of APC accused Gov. Makinde of ensuring ” total shut down of courts” in the state so that no aggrieved parties would be able to get justice on account of the many foul conduct perpetrated by him and his party (PDP) before, during and after the just conducted council election notwithstanding the fact that prospective litigants have a specific time frame to exercise their rights.
According to APC, “apart from the fact that Gov. Makinde has been found to be among the caucus of state governors who do not want autonomy for the Judiciary and local government tier in the country, we have established the fact that he is surreptitiously doing everything to ensure that the current industrial action embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) continue for as long as possible for his own selfish reasons”.
“Our experience of May 20 was better imagined as it played out that a governor could use foul means to stop an opposition party from filing a case against him and his party in a democracy. For the record, it was Judiciary staff that embarked on industrial action and not Judges and lawyers”, he said.
Chief Oke added, “So, we sought and got a legitimate avenue to file a case before the relevant court on the fateful day but Gov. Makinde allegedly furtively mobilised some hoodlums to the premises of the State High Court at Ring Road, Ibadan and decorated them as JUSUN members”.
“These political thugs, drawn from a section of commercial drivers union in charge of his Park Management System (PMS), harassed and chased away our team of lawyers who had visited the court to do their lawful business.
“The thugs remained in the court arena until the dead of the night on that Thursday and as if this was not enough, Gov. Makinde declared a public holiday for an election which had been made a PDP versus PDP affair even before it was conducted. These steps were taken in order ensure that time available for us to seek legal redress was wasted.”.
Chief Oke maintained that “more frustrating now is the deliberate incapacitation of the Chief Justice of the state to constitute and inaugurate Election Petition Tribunal for the purpose of entertaining litigation which might arise from the said May 22 council poll.
“For Gov. Makinde, the next thing after successfully reducing the legislative arm to a mere puppet was to incapacitate the judiciary and then make himself a civilian autocrat in a constitutional democracy.
“However, it is pertinent to draw the attention of the striking workers to review their action and consider the fact those responsible for their agitation are turning out to be beneficiaries of their protests. We implore them to resume duties and re-strategize so that they don’t deny the common man the justice deserved in the face of executive recklessness.”
