ADO-EKITI—Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Ekiti State has lambasted ousted Governor Segun Oni over his petition against the Court of Appeal judgment which removed him from office.

The party said Oni lacks the moral justification to complain against the nullification of an election  that was conducted without a voter’s register, Form EC8A with its collation done at a police station which was not designated for that purpose.

The State ACN Chairman, Chief Olajide Awe, in a statement yesterday decried Oni’s attack on the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, saying Salami’s offence would seem to be his courage to insist on the truth and Oni’s inability to penetrate his court with filthy lucre.

The ACN through its chairman was reacting to Oni’s petition to the National Judicial Council, NJC, complaining against the judgment delivered by Justice Salami in which the unlawful votes credited to him in Ido/Osi were deducted by Appeal tribunal.

“If Oni has good advisers, he ought to have been told that NJC cannot help him  no matter the amount of dirt thrown at the Court of Appeal and no matter the conspiracy being masterminded by the enemies of judicial integrity in our country.”

“It was after all not Salami who threw Oni out of Government House on February 17, 2009. That was a panel comprised of an entirely different set of judges, yet it indicted the election that brought him in as fraudulent and non compliant with the Electoral Act.

”We have no doubt in our mind that the alleged petition to NJC would amount to nothing because we have nothing to fear as we have committed no offence nor do we believe in subverting and manipulating the system the way Oni and his cohorts do”, Awe said.

Awe said had Oni been tried and prosecuted for illegally occupying an office for which he was not elected in the first place for over three years, he (Oni) would not have had the effrontery of petitioning the NJC claiming that the Appeal Court verdict robbed him of key votes in Ido/Osi council area of the state.

Oni had recently launched verbal assault on the Appeal Court verdict the latest of which was an interview with a weekend newspaper where he challenged Justice Salami to defend the judgment he delivered on the Ekiti appeal case.

But Awe regretted that the weakness of the nation’s electoral laws in punishing indicted poll robbers had given politicians like Oni the temerity to assault the collective intelligence of Ekiti people in particular and Nigerians in general whose votes were brazenly stolen in broad daylight in the 2007 general elections.

Instead of complaining about the 2007 and 2009 polls which the Appeal Court said was marred by massive irregularities, Awe advised Oni to publicly apologize to Ekiti people and seek their forgiveness for being a beneficiary of “a despicable electoral rape” from which the state is yet to recover.

Awe said: “Robbery of any type is not in the cherished Ekiti values and character because Ekiti people don’t steal and they abhor stealing, cheating and injustice.

The court had proved that this man stole his way to power and he is trying to hold on to a stolen mandate.

“Oni by his action is laying a bad precedent and he is embarking on this needless ego trip because our laws are weak in enforcing sanctions against electoral crimes.

“We are surprised that Oni who supposed to be penitent and beg Ekiti people for forgiveness for exercising a mandate they never gave him is now having the effrontery of writing a petition to the NJC to review the Appeal Court judgment.

“What is he complaining about? An election conducted without the voter register, Form EC8A and with mutilated photocopies for Form EC8A which he (Oni) and his co-respondents tendered at the tribunal.

“An election where collation was purportedly done at a police station not designated for that purpose. In fact, most of the photocopies of Form EC8A brought by his agents were not signed and where they were signed and stamped, the stamps were fake.

“An election where the final result sheet was not signed by any agent even though they claimed they had alternative agents which were not known to law. “Is Oni complaining about an election where the umpire resigned, disappeared and reappeared to announce a fake result.

“Was Justice Salami Peter Oladosu a.k.a. Erinmoje, Oni’s confirmed aide who confessed to have burnt down INEC office and whose evidence was not contradicted or controverted till today.

“Not only did Erinmoje claimed to have done everything he was accused of doing on the orders of Oni, his evidence was corroborated by that of Bunmi Ojo, Oni’s personal assistant who confirmed in his evidence that Erinmoje actually worked for Oni”.

The ACN boss warned Oni not to push his luck too far and not to misconstrue the silence of Ekiti people for stupidity. According to him, “Oni should stop insulting the intelligence of Ekiti people by laying claim to victory he never acquired legitimately”.

Awe regretted that Oni inflicted untold hardship on the people of the state through harsh policies, executive somersaults, unpaid salaries and wastage of public funds on projects which were abandoned.

He pointed out that the report of how the illegal regime ran the state aground would soon be released by the various panels and committees set up to look into activities of the deposed government.