Tribunal Verdict: Aggrieved Osun residents embark on peaceful protest in Abuja

Tribunal Verdict: Aggrieved Osun residents embark on peaceful protest in Abuja

………… Urges NJC To Review Judgement To Save Image of Judiciary

Aggrieved Residents of Osun State, on Thursday embarked on a peaceful protest in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory FCT, against the judgement of the governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Governor Ademola Adeleke as the rightful winner of the last gubernatorial election in the State

The protesters armed with various placards with inscriptions such as: “No to Buga judgement”, “the people of Osun demand justice”, “Justice Kume is biased”, “Kume out to kill Electoral Act” among others, matched round the three

Arms Zone housing the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Nigeria before moving the Headphones of the National Judicial Council, NJC and laid a petition for the review of the judgement before the Council

The aggrieved protesters accused the Chairman of the Tribunal of being biased by making reference to the personal life of the governor was not in tandem with the judiciary ethics

Addressing news men and the Protesters,, after the peaceful protest before moving to the NJC, their Spokesperson Alhaji Moshood Adebayo, called for an urgent investigation of Justice Kume “for actions and activities in breach of judicial ethics and protocols”.

According to them, “We write to report a judicial officer, Justice Terse Kume for his violation of all known ethical conduct and behaviours unbecoming of the esteemed office he occupies.

“As the Chairman of the Osun Governorship panel, Justice Kume acted with deep bias and partiality which compels an extensive probe on his culpability.

“The Osun Governorship election was a model for the nation as local and international observers affirmed it as the best election in recent Nigerian history.

“The outcome strengthened faith in the BVAS machine and manifested a great fruit of the new Electoral Act. After the Osun election, there was a general relief that going forward, people’s votes will count in the electoral process. The July 16 poll was a master stroke, a giant stride in Nigeria’s strides to sustainable democracy.

“All these realities that give hope to the nation and that reaffirm confidence of the global community in Nigeria’s democracy was muddled up within few hours by Justice Kume.

“His delivering the most illogical , biased and illegal judgement threatened to present and future of our democracy. Such judicial officer who deliberately set out to derail democratic practice should be disciplined to prevent further rot in the judicial system.”

The protesters further argued that throughout the trial, the justice was consistently providing support to the petitioners “even when their counsels are failing, adjournments were ordered to ensure rectification.”

They further added, that, “this happened in more than ten instances during the hearing of the petition. The Chairman did not hide his open support for the petitioner while the trial lasted

“The Tribunal Chairman deliberately ignored a strong appeal to caution the petitioner to stop the media trial which was clearly in contempt of the Tribunal. The petitioners circulated judgement and table of final results the Tribunal will arrive at long before the judgement was delivered.

“Surprisingly, the Tribunal Chairman replicated in his judgement the exact tables and contents of media trial the petitioners had been pushing all along during the trial”.

They, however, called on the NJC to order a probe of how the judgement was handled due to evident signs of external influence and manipulation

They also urged the Council to rebuke the judge for apparent partnership with the petitioners during the petition hearing which resulted in a miscarriage of justice, adding that a disciplinary action should be taken against Justice Kume for violating his oaths of office and for engaging in actions.

“The Image of the judiciary is seriously at stake, the Council should rise up and take responsibility and do the needful niw, it is Osun today, we don’t the next place, Osun people are law abiding people, that’s why we are here to register our grievances”, they added

The Tribunal, headed by Justice Terste Kume had sacked Governor Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and declared AlhajiGboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the poll.