Osun PDP Petitions Senate Over Resident Electoral Commissioner

The Osun State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party has petitioned the upper Legislative chamber not to confirm Ambassador Rufus Oluwatooyin Akeju as a state Resident Electoral commissioner.

In a petition signed by the party’s lawyer Barrister Kehinde Adesiyan the party listed the offences of Ambassador Akeju to include the flagrant disobedience to the ruling of a competent court of law,  his affinity to a political leader and his membership of a political party among others.

The party in the petition which was made available to CityMirrorNews  hinged its reasons for taking such step on the flagrant disobedience of the Federal High court Osogbo’s ruling of 28th March 2011 by both the INEC and Akeju.

The ruling which was served on the INEC the 1st defendant and Akeju as  2nd defendant in their offices and promptly acknowledged by them with the admonition to INEC to make immediate and necessary arrangements to ensure that the elections of that year were not affected was violated with impunity and the defendants went ahead to conduct the elections with Akeju as Osun State Resident Electoral commissioner, for this reason the elections were largely boycotted, and

INEC  announced all elections results with Akeju as the State Returning Officer with impunity.

“In a country like ours with democratic settings where our leaders are professing to be proud respecter of the rule of law,  how on earth can such a person who held the rule of law disdainfully be made to hold such position”, the party queried in the petition.

The petitioner went further to say that INEC and Akeju appealed the ruling of the high court with the Appeal number CA/AK462011 between INEC and Mr Rufus Oluwatooyin  Akeju as the appellant and PDP as defendant. This appeal was struck out on the 10th of October 2014 by the Court of Appeal Akure Division against INEC and Akeju.

The implication of both rulings by the Federal High court Osogbo and the Appeal Court Akure was that all elections conducted by INEC and Akeju were defective,  illegal and unconstitutional.

The petitioner also directed the attention of the Senate to the fact that Akeju was once a Personal Assistant to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a chieftain of APC and that Akeju was once a card carrying member of the then Action Congress of Nigeria ACN a party that merged with others to form APC, the ruling party at national level.

The petitioner called on the Senate to invoke the newly passed electoral law which forbids any card carrying member of a political party from being confirmed for the position of Resident Electoral Commissioner to disqualify Akeju as any election or INEC activities under his supervision will lack credibility and public support.