OSUN State Governor Ademola Adeleke has asked President Bola Tinubu to caution the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, over an alleged plot to create chaos and anarchy in the Southwest state.
At a press briefing on Sunday, Adeleke alleged that his predecessor had instructed the police and the Department of State Services “to effect a non-existent judgement by forcefully taking over the local governments on Monday”.
The governor said, “The bone of contention is the brazen effrontery to return to office council chairmen sacked by a subsisting court Judgment using a different court decision, which has no consequential order.
“Let me make it clear that the said Council Chairmen were sacked before I was sworn in as governor of Osun State, contrary to the lies being peddled, that the Chairmen and councillors were sacked by my Executive Order.
“For emphasis, l want to state that I had nothing to do with the sacking of the chairmen and councillors produced by the Osun 2022 local government polls. The Chairmen and Councilors were sacked by two different judgments of the Federal High Court Osogbo.
“In a democratic society governed by the rule of law, we all must submit to the law. If we are dissatisfied with the outcome of a court process, we can appeal to the next court to end at the Supreme Court.”
Adeleke urged Tinubu to insist on the rule of law by instructing police and the DSS “not to obey an illegal order from his nephew, Mr Gboyega Oyetola. The Osun State security chiefs should also be called to order”.
“I call on Mr President to instruct the National Security Adviser and the Attorney General of the Federation to personally verify the fact that the Court of Appeal judgement did not reinstate the sacked local government chairmen and councillors and the fact that there is a subsisting judgement of Court that sacked the Chairmen and Councillors produced by the 2022 local government polls,” he said.
The state chapter of Oyetola’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in its response, dismissed Adeleke’s allegations as an attempt to evade legal procedures, advising him to approach the Supreme Court if dissatisfied with the Court of Appeal’s judgment.
Osun APC spokesperson Kola Olabisi denied that Oyetola had issued any illegal directives to security agencies, accusing Adeleke of resorting to blackmail instead of legal recourse.
“Oyetola has not instructed anyone, including security chiefs, on how to do their job. Adeleke should know that blackmail or sentiment will not change the court’s decision,” Olabisi stated.
He argued that the APC-led local government officials were unjustly removed in 2022 and had now been lawfully reinstated through the courts.
“The court has spoken, and those affected by Adeleke’s actions have been left out in the cold for too long. Now that justice has been served, as the leader of the Osun APC, Oyetola is committed to ensuring the ruling is implemented,” he added.
Olabisi insisted that the APC would remain law-abiding but would also ensure that the court’s verdict was upheld.
“Court of Law has spoken, and the verdict must be obeyed. So, he should stop this blackmail because that will not work here. As for us in APC, we will remain law-abiding, but we won’t sleep on our right,” he concluded.