The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor of Osun on July 16 was taken before the Election Tribunal, according to media reports, which the Young Progressives Party (YPP) has refuted.
The party, according to InsightnaijaTV, was responding to a news that it had petitioned the Tribunal to annul the election due to violations of the Electoral Act.
Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins, the YPP’s spokesperson, stated in a statement on Saturday that the party never submitted a petition to request the annulment of the governorship election.
He claimed that if the party had been interested in submitting a petition, it would have been done through the National Legal Adviser’s office, which is charged with handling such matters.
However, the party argued that the information was entirely incorrect, deceptive, and that the general public should ignore it.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Young Progressives Party has been drawn to unfortunate news making the rounds that it filed a petition at the Election Tribunal seeking to nullify the governorship election conducted on July 16 in Osun State over non-compliance with the Electoral Act; this news is completely false, misleading and should be disregarded by members of the public.
“The NWC/NEC of the Young Progressives Party never at any point in time whether impliedly or expressly discussed nor ratified the institution of a case at the tribunal with the malicious intent of nullifying an election that has been adjudged by both local and international observers to be relatively free, fair and credible. Moreover, if the party was interested in filing a petition, it would have been done through the office of the National Legal Adviser whose office is saddled with such responsibilities.
“Despite our reservations concerning some aspects of the election ranging from pre-election exclusion to vote buying and selling, these observed electoral infractions, however, remain insufficient to discredit the overall outcome of the election. Hence, it will be preposterous trying to fix what is not broken by engaging in a fruitless exercise to subvert the will of the good people of Osun State who have spoken loud and clear through the ballot.
“While we do not rule out the possibility of some imposters who may not be sufficiently inundated with the ideology of our great party being used by some anti-democratic forces, we assure the general public that the perpetrators of this ill-informed action will not only be investigated but sanctioned appropriately through our disciplinary committee and where possible, may also be prosecuted as the Legal Directorate, which is oblivious of this case has already commenced necessary actions.
“The party will like to reiterate to all our stakeholders the need to be circumspect, vigilant and resist the lure of being used by desperate politicians because of pecuniary gains as we will never allow our party to be used as a tool of destabilisation.”
