The refusal of the Justices of the Court of Appeal sitting on the Ondo Election Appeal is another dangerous step towards chaos in Ondo State and subversion of democracy in Nigeria, a group, Movement for Democratic Dividends has said.
The group, in a statement in Akure on Tuesday, November 1, 2016 said “underhand tactics, blackmail and outright subterfuge as being employed by the Jimoh Ibrahim group ostensibly at the prodding of prominent All Progressives Congress, APC, goons cannot be stoke disquiet, anger and doubts. And when doubts are accentuated by feelings of injustice, lawlessness is the possible outcome.”
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“The legal rigmarole and blackmail now being witnessed are only new steps by Jimoh Ibrahim and those urging him on within the APC to set the state on fire and make it ungovernable for the incumbent as he had long vowed to do,” the statement signed by Adesoji Akinlamilo, the group’s president, said.
The group which said a new foundation for chaos is being laid through the Ondo debacle called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on President Buhari to note the historical realities of Nigeria and save Ondo State and by implication, Nigeria from the chaos that could result when all hope are lost in the judiciary.
The three-man panel of judges of the Appeal Court specially constituted to give accelerated hearing to the appeal of the PDP and its candidate, Eyitayo Jegede over the candidature of the PDP in the Ondo governorship election has withdrawn from presiding over the case after it had been battered and bludgeoned by cheap and unverified claims and blackmail by Jimoh Ibrahim and his self-acclaimed PDP chairman, Biyi Poroye.
The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, had fixed today [Tuesday, November 1, 2016] to begin hearing in the case, but could not proceed due to the unfounded petition written against it by Jimoh and Poroye.
The file case has been returned to the president of the Court of Appeal to be reassigned to a new panel of Judges to begin hearing of the case soon.
