The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has allayed concerns over the court’s ruling demanding the deregistration of the Accord Party as he reaffirmed that his re-election campaign will flag off on Tuesday as planned.
NPO Reported that the Federal High Court in Abuja had earlier today ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister Accord and four other political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), over alleged failure to meet the constitutional requirements for political parties in the country.
Reacting to the development in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke described that judgement as an abuse of court process and direct violation of a subsisting order of the Court of Appeal.
The governor expressed surprise with the Federal High Court’s ruling despite the Appeal Court’s order for the stay of proceedings by the lower.
Adeleke urged the Osun resident to be calm as he disclosed that the Court of Appeal will take up the matter on Tuesday.
He thereafter assured the public that the flag-off of his campaign will hold tomorrow despite the court’s order.
Adeleke, as quoted by Olawale, maintained that the Accord Party will be on the ballot box at the forthcoming August 15 Governorship election.
He described the court’s ruling as mere distraction, stressing that the party will emerge victorious at the election.
“Efforts to stop Osun people from exercising their voting rights will fail by the special grace of Almighty God. The Rule of Law and Humanity shall prevail at the end of the day.
“I call on Osun people to remain calm and be assured that our rights will be affirmed and our party, the Accord will be on the ballot on August 15th.
“We will not only be on the ballot, we will win overwhelmingly the forthcoming governorship election. We should remain calm and forge ahead with mobilisation of our people.
“I also want to assure our people that the flag off of our campaign is holding as scheduled tomorrow. They want to distract us. We are going ahead and we are winning this election”, the governor said.
He added that his legal team are currently taking necessary actions to address the development.
“Our lawyers are taking all the necessary steps to right the wrong” Adeleke said.