Osun LG: How PDP played into the hands of APC – Ismail Omipidan

Ismail Omipidan, a Nigerian author, journalist and Public Affairs Analyst, has weighed in on the LG controversy in Osun.

In his piece, Omipidan said, I have always been told about the Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crude method of doing things. I never believed all the stories told me until I began to see them manifest in the way they run government, treat people with disdain and carry on as if there is no law in place to moderate their actions and excesses.

When the progressives took over in 2010, PDP elected Local Government officials were in place. In spite of the fact that the Action Congress (AC), as it was then known, had challenged the conduct of the election, the same way the PDP did in 2022, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that later took over the reign of government in 2010, did not dissolve the PDP Council officials. Instead, the government allowed the case to run its full course. Hon. Bamidele Salam, a serving member of the House of Representatives from the state is a beneficiary of that scenario. How come, someone like him, a lawyer did not talk real sense into the heads of those misleading the PDP-led administration in the state?

This matter is simple. PDP went to court by itself and through proxies. It got a judgment from a lower court. APC went to an appellate court.

In that court, APC prayed the court to grant the following reliefs: “an Order allowing this appeal, an Order setting aside the ruling delivered by the Lower Court on 15th September, 2022 and dismissing the 1st Respondent’s Motion on Notice to amend dated 29th August, 2022 (but filed on 2nd September, 2022), an Order granting the Appellants’ Motion on Notice to dismiss suit dated 28th October, 2022, an Order setting aside and nullifying the judgment of the lower court delivered on 25th November, 2022, an Order invoking Section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act to determine the suit of the 1st Respondent on the basis of the Originating Summons dated 27th July, 2022, an Order dismissing Suit No: FHC/OS/CS/94/2022, an Order restoring the Appellants back into their offices having been duly elected by the citizens of Osun State, and (any) such further or other Orders as this Honourable Court may make in the circumstances of this appeal.”

And all the reliefs sought, particularly an Order “restoring the Appellants back into their offices having been duly elected by the citizens of Osun State,” were all granted by the Appeal Court. So, what’s the fuss about?

I said it before, and let me reiterate here that having played into the hands of the APC, all the PDP need to do is to return to the court, while allowing the council officials to take their seats. Anything short of that will be an invitation to anarchy.