Why I Want My Mandate Back –Agagu
More than two years after he was thrown out of office by the Court of Appeal, Benin City, Edo State, former Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, has petitioned the National Judicial Council, Abuja, claiming he was robbed.
In a petition dated 7 March, 2011 addressed to the chairman of the council, the former governor alleged that there was a high level conspiracy using judicial powers to throw him out of office. He described his removal as a travesty of justice.
“I have ruminated over this matter for months and I am convinced that this complaint ought to be laid with your council. I am also not unaware that the hunter may become the hunted in view of the massive arsenal available to those this petition ultimately attacks,†he explained.
He said his grouse with the verdicts of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal is essentially on the acceptance by the two tiers of courts that elections in 10 local governments where he won were marred with irregularities, while conveniently all the votes cast in the seven local governments where Labour Party won were retained.
Agagu said the strange decisions were based on the use of fake SSS reports, deliberate inflation of votes, deliberate reduction of PDP votes and unused voter’s cards.
The former governor explained that based on his earlier petition to the National Security Adviser on the genuiness or otherwise of the SSS reports tendered in Ondo State, the outcome of which shows the reports as fake, he called for an investigation of his complaint.
“I find it very strange and indeed a travesty of justice to have been dealt with by the judiciary in the manner I have. Kindly direct an investigation of my complaints. Our nation will be the better for it. Obviously, this is not a case of being a sour loser,†Dr. Agagu stated in his six-page petition.
Agagu was the governor of Ondo State for six years. He was shown the way out by the Court of Appeal on 23 February, 2009. The Okitipupa-born politician is the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Senatorial candidate for Ondo South Senatorial District in next April’s elections.
—Funsho Arogundade
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