The All Progressives Congress in Edo State on Saturday faulted the Peoples Democratic Party’s claim that it was evading being served its election petition challenging the outcome of the September 28 governorship poll.
A leader of the party in Ed0-South senatorial district, Oteghe Adams, who stated this at a press briefing in Benin, described the claim as a mockery of proceedings in the state election petitions tribunal.
The PDP had on October 25 accused the ruling party and the governor-elect, Godwin Obaseki, of allegedly avoiding being served the petition by shutting the gates of the APC state secretariat on Airport Road.
This made the state governorship election petitions tribunal in Benin to grant the PDP and the Young Democratic Party, challenging the election results, an exparte order to serve the APC and Obaseki, by substituted means.
The state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chris Nehikhare, had in a statement said, “Since the APC heard that the PDP had indeed filed a robust and detailed petition at the tribunal, they have put their party secretariat on Airport Road under lock and key.’’
Adams noted that the candidate of the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, allegedly engaged in a continuous campaign of denigration and vicious attack on the will of the electorate, which he claimed was expressed during the election.
He said, “The recent unfortunate drama about the purported ‘evasion’ of summons created by the PDP was nothing but the figment of the imagination of the party.”
Adams also stated that the action of the PDP and its candidate showed that they “neither have respect for judicial proceedings nor for the voice of the people.”
He said, “Having woefully lost the game plan that Ize-Iyamu’s PDP faction scripted for September 28, the defeated candidate is now using an otherwise sacrosanct proceedings of the election tribunal for shameless theatrics.”
PUNCH
