Once again, the transience of power played out itself in Osun State penultimate Friday when the state erupted in a spontaneous wild jubilation over the fall of impostor Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola from the Olympian height of power. Never in the history of the 19-year-old state has such a common source of joy experienced in the nooks and crannies of the state. It was only the sudden demise of another military President Sani Abacha that attracted such nationwide wild jubilation. Oyinlola’s crash from power became a common binding factor among the different strata of the long-suffering people of the state of the Living Spring.
Immediately the landmark judgment was heard, people who had long been held in literary captivity rolled out drums, turning the state into a theatre of monumental celebration. Joy, happiness, freedom, prosperity and hope which had, long ago, taken flight from the state hurriedly staged a come back with the speed of thunder. All these virtues were sighted walking on four legs. Just as such a binding factor of joy was a rarity in the state prior to the landmark verdict under discuss, it would be doubtful if any event can arouse a similar common interest again in the state.
Prior to the filing-in of the five-man member of the Court of Appeal panel under the chairmanship of Justice Clara-Bata Ogunbiyi, there was apprehension in the court because it was a day a winner and a loser would emerge; a day set aside to tell the people of Osun who their governor they actually voted for was. The apprehension was further felt when it was only one Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Deji Sasegbon, that led other lawyers to represent the petitioners while the respondents paraded no fewer than five SANs led by Chief Adebayo Adenipekun. There was further apprehension when the panelists which started sitting at 10.00am were busy conferring among themselves and scribbling down something for 37 minutes. Oyinlola’s SANs came into the court with high spirit, exchanging pleasantries and banters with Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s lone SAN, asking him: “What should we expect today?” It was Mr Nathaniel Oke who actually asked the question. Malam Yusuff Ali (SAN) who had been leading Oyinlola’s lawyers was conspicuously absent on the day of the judgment which was read for about five hours (between 9.30am and 2.30pm).
A unique feature of the judgment was that all network services of mobile telephones inside the court room were demobilized as nobody could either call, or receive any information through telephone. This feature which was first noticed by me at the Press Gallery proved disastrous to Mr Kunle Kalejaiye, one of Oyinlola’s senior lawyers who has just been indicted by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over his unprofessional conduct in the election case which has become a watershed in the history of election petition cases in this country; being the longest that lasted three and a half years. Unknown to Kalejaiye that all phone lines had been demobilized, he tried severally in vain to get across to God-knows-who through text messages. He became apparently worried, sinking further into the bench on which he was sitting. His face suddenly became swollen and dejected and it was as if he had been bedridden for months. When the tone of the verdict as it was being read was not in the favour of his client, Kalejaiye became dumbfounded, gazing at the ceiling of the court room. Initially, there was a false confidence in the camp of Oyinlola’s lawyers when the court upheld the cross appeal of their client. It was this cross appeal ruling that prompted some marginally literate members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to storm out to feed their equally illiterate and uninformed members with a false imformation that the PDP was winning. At this juncture, the PDP members had busted into victory songs accompanied with attack on ACN members around.
At a point, Mr Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), one of Oyinlola’s counsel, rebuffed copious efforts by Kalejaiye to explain something to him while the judgment was being read. Former Osun State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Niyi Owolade who could not believe the outcome of the judgment for some time sank into his bench. If he had the supernatural power, Owolade would have asked the floor of the court room to swallow him. But it was too late. The Ifetedo-born Oyinlola’s Attorney-General pretended to be sleeping throughout the duration of the verdict session. At the end of the verdict, Owolade was too dazed to make his allocutus, thus denying the people an opportunity to listen to his manufactured Queen’s English. About two hours into the reading of the judgment, a PDP governorship aspirant in Osun State, Mr Diran Odeyemi who doubles as an aide to another controversial and ornament-loving Oyo State Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala was the first person to leave the court with dejection.
Osun PDP Director of Publicity, Mr Adeolu Adeyemo followed suit after he had conferred briefly with Kalejaiye. The Editor of OSUN MAIL Newspaper, the mouth organ of the PDP in the state, the Egbado, Ogun State-born Seun Adeoye, also left the court room when he was disappointed beyond redemption with the judgment. He was too shocked; how he would splash the headline of the verdict became a big concern to him. Will Adeoye put in a banner headline of his newspaper that his principal had lost election? Alas! He was in a dilemma which was orchestrated by a long-time unprofessional approach to journalism profession. The newspaper was off the street for that week.
It was learnt that OSUN MAIL edition for last week could not be distributed because it had wrongly pre-empted the verdict; the publication of which would have hung sedition charges on the neck of the newspaper and its handlers.
If the news of the Oyinlola crash from power attracted a tumultuous ecstatic crowd from all walks of life, the inauguration of Engineer Aregbesola as authentic Osun State Governor On November 27 at Technical College, Osogbo, was first of its kind in the political history of the state. Being the product of the longest election petition litigation in the country, virtually all segments of the society were interested in the outcome. As early as the eve of the inauguration, Osogbo, the state capital started to play host to admirers and well-wishers from across the nation in thousands. The influx of the people continued in a geometrical proportion to the extent that the hitherto scanty state capital became overpopulated with both human and vehicular traffic.
On the inauguration day, I did not envy security operatives of the police, State Security Service (SSS) and Nigerian Civil Defence Corps extractions as they performed optimally in order to keep orderliness on the occasion. The venue became jam-packed with human beings who were anxious to be part of the celebration.
It is on record that since I was launched into this world, no event had ever attracted such a multitude of people. Something similar to that was when that renowned German tele-evangelist, Pastor Reinhard Bonnke, carried his missionary activities to the state of the Living Spring about eight years ago. The inauguration epitomized triumph of truth over falsehood. It was indeed a day of liberation for the psychologically traumatized people of Osun State. The judgment day was indeed the day of reckoning for Oyinlola which had been severally foretold in this column. It will now dawn on the Okuku prince that he had been living in a fool’s paradise. He surrounded himself with sycophants who were attracted to him because of his power over the state treasury. The one-star retired Army General mistook sycophantic patronage for political popularity and acceptability, flaunting his 35 years’ working experience as a military man. With the Okuku prince’s braggadocio, Rauf, a civilian, thrashed him beyond redemption. Sources close to Oyinlola disclosed that he was still sedated and jolted with the outcome of the electoral litigation that has finally nailed his political coffin. Fear of unknown after the verdict is now haunting him. Oyinlola and some of his group of cohorts should be ready to answer all criminal allegations contained in the final police security report on the April 14, 2007 governorship and house of assembly elections. There cannot be peace without justice. Now that the coast is clear, the police must swing into action dispassionately and do what is right, fair and just in the interest of justice. Afterall, it is on record that so many people were killed by the PDP thugs at the instance of their principals on April 14, 2007 in Osun State.
Oyinlola is not the only loser of the mandate stealing episode; the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade; former President Olusegun Obasanjo; fake Awoist Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Chief Abiola Ogundokun; Alhaji Ademola Rasaq among numerous others are all losers. Infact, the development is a total demystification of the pungently and brazenly partisan Ooni Sijuwade who pitched his tent with political rascals and nincompoops with the sole aim of defrauding the state. It will be on record that the Ooni, once again, missed an opportunity to make restitution when he had all the time at his disposal. At eighty something, I doubt it if it is not too late in the day for him to change over a new leaf by genuinely identifying with the people. The Ooni, against numerous cautions, abandoned the people and became an active partaker in attracting sorrow, under-development, harassments, oppression mandate stealing and other socio-political ills into the state of the Living Spring by being a political godfather to a political infidel like Oyinlola. I wonder the business of the old monarch in partisan politics that has brought avoidable shame and insult to him at the twilight of his life?
The Aregbesola electoral victory is also an indication that anything achieved through fraudulent means will never stand. Retired General Obasanjo’s ‘empire’ which was fraudulently built in 2003 in a bid to give a false impression of his popularity and acceptability in the South-West geopolitical zone is now crumbling before him. Which disgrace can surpass that? My prayer is that God should spare the lives of the Otta chicken farmer and the Ooni when Ogun and Oyo states would be retrieved from the reactionary group. Chief Babatope (Ebino Topsy) must be licking his wound now with the summary defeat of Oyinlola. What happens to Babatope’s imperial justification of his party’s pyrrhic victory that ‘Aregbesola won in the rural areas’ in the April 14, 2007 elections?. The old and former disciple of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo should bury his head in shame with the current political development in Osun as what he wanted to eat blackfolded him from saying the truth. Oyedokun has long being boxed into a ward leadership in Odo-Otin from a national leadership of his party. This is enough shame to the political harlot who raised up Rauf’s hand during his short fraternity with the progressives.
Ogundokun who has a pending case of burglary and theft against him in Lagos State should quit politics because unfolding events have shown that he is one of the spent political forces in this state. Omisore’s political coffin has been finally nailed; he should perish his thought of going back to the senate as it is known to rational minds that in a saner clime, he is not even an ideal candidate for a local government council chairmanship election. The state chairman of the opposition party, the PDP, Rasaq, notoriously known as ‘Landero’ who has been under intensive medication since the tsunami verdict that swept off the PDP from the political theatre of Osun will now know that power indeed is transient. I wish him speedy recovery from his shock-related ailment. Till next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment