Calls for Osun emergency rule are despotic, illegal — Olajengbesi

Abuja-based lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has condemned the calls by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for President Bola Tinubu to extend the emergency rule imposed on Rivers State to Osun State.

In a statement on Thursday, Olajengbesi described the calls by the APC as satanic, despotic, unconstitutional, undemocratic and self-serving.

Olajengbesi said APC National Secretary, Ajibola Bashiru, and his co-travellers should perish the thoughts of getting the president to impose a state of emergency in Osun State. They should bury their face in shame as promoters of unconstitutionalism in the country.

The lawyer also called on well-meaning Nigerians to vocally condemn and reject the abuse of power by the APC government at the federal level, saying a bad precedent should not be allowed to be set in the case of Rivers.

According to him, Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution did not empower the president to suspend a sitting governor and other elected officials.

He said the plot by the APC to explore the ties Minister Gboyega Oyetola shares with the president to secure the removal of the democratically elected Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is dead of arrival.

The Government is Osun State is properly constituted. The State Assembly is working in a harmonious relationship with the Governor for the development of the State.

Olajengbesi said, “Nigeria’s democracy is at a critical juncture. Men of ill-agenda now manipulate the system to get their despotic desires done. But men of character must equally reject the reign of horror and terror. Autocratic tendencies have no room in our nascent democracy.

“The calls for emergency rule in Osun State by Senator Ajibola Bashiru and the APC is totally condemnable, unconstitutional and tyrannical.

“No situation in Osun State warrants such devilish call. Osun State is peaceful. Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution is clear on situations that warrant a state of emergency and this does not preclude the suspension of elected officials.

“The plot by the APC government to surreptitiously eject governors in opposition parties through the imposition of emergency rule stands condemned. The plot is dead on arrival.”