Adeleke optimistic of a favourable court judgement

Osun governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, on Wednesday expressed optimism of a favourable judgement as Supreme Court rules on the suit instituted against his candidature as the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Osun July 16 governorship poll.

Supreme Court is expected on Thursday to rule on the case filed against Adeleke by a governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Prince Dotun Babayemi, who had asked the court to invalidate primaries that produced Osun governor-elect, citing non compliance with court order.

In his judgement on the matter on May 18, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of a Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo, had upheld the governorship primary that produced Adeleke.

Also, the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, in its judgement of July 20 on the appeal filed against the decision of the Federal High Court, Osogbo, aligned with the lower court and dismissed Babayemi’s appeal.

Ahead of the Supreme Court judgement of Thursday, Adeleke in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said he expected a favourable judgement from the Court.

The statement further read, “There is no tension here. His Excellency calls on his supporters to remain assured of eventual victory because we stand on legality from the begining of the process to the end. Our positive expectation is also borne out of the strong faith Senator Adeleke has in the judiciary as a house of justice and seriousness.

“The judiciary and all stakeholders are fully aware that the primary that produced Senator Adeleke is approved and supervised by the National Executive Committee of the PDP with electoral Commission in attendance and with the right legal candidate participating. So the Governor-elect has absolute faith in the judiciary. His message is for our people to be calm as victory is right at our door.”

Efforts to get Babayemi to comment through the spokesperson of this campaign organisation, Kayode Oladeji, proved futile as calls did not go through to his mobile line and he had not responded to a text message sent to him asking for comment as of the time of filing this report.