The Ondo State Chapter of the Labour Party (LP) has advised Traditional rulers in the State to stay out of politics and back out of the planned protests in favour of Dr Olusegun Agagu slated for Thursday at the Governor’s Office by the royal fathers who have been provided with placards denouncing the judgment of the Justice Garba Nabaruma led five-man Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Agagu as well as asking the Appeal Court to upturn the verdict.

LP, in a release in Akure on Tuesday signed by its spokesman, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, disclosed that following the Tribunal judgment last Friday which declared Dr Olusegun Mimiko of the LP as the duly elected governor of the State, Agagu met with some of the traditional rulers who are sympathetic to his cause at a public function in Akoko last weekend where it was agreed that the monthly meeting of the Royal Fathers in the State slated for this Thursday would be taken to the Governor’s Office where placards would be shared out to some of them who will condemn the judgment in its entirety.

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Says Olabisi: “This will not be the first time Agagu would, in his desperation to hang unto his illegal mandate, use the royal fathers, some of whom are usually unaware of his antics until they get to the venues of such meeting, as pawns in his devious game. For instance, during the days following the rigging of the April 14 election which gave him his pyrrhic victory, Agagu, in cahoots with some of loyalists among the Obas, lured them into the Governor’s Office for their monthly meeting where, to the
surprise of many, Agagu was installed as the Atunluse of Ondo State! Some of the royal fathers not in the know of this coup de tat could only squirm in their seats and keep quiet. Again, Agagu was to turn the royal palaces into armory when he asked his thugs and militants to return the guns given to them fore the prosecution of the rigging to the palaces of the royal fathers with an assurance that they would not be prosecuted.

“Now, Agagu has embarked on a similar exercise wherein these custodians of the people’s lore would be used to legitimize his illegal mandate which the Judiciary retrieved for the rightful owner last Friday. Each of these royal fathers, armed with instructive placards, would be made to talk individually expressing their ‘confidence’ in Agagu and that he should be allowed to continue in office. They would insist that as representatives of their people they have been mandated to ask the appellate court to reverse Justice Nabaruma judgment.”

While appealing to them not desecrate their exalted positions as fathers of all who should stay out of partisan politics at all times, the Labour Party warned that their action if carried out would be in contrast to the wish of the people of their communities who spoke loudly with their votes on April 14, 2007 election when they voted for Dr Mimiko.

“Also, this planned protest by the royal fathers would be prejudicial as it will be a direct assault on the Judiciary which they must avoid at all times as law abiding citizens of the larger body polity called Nigeria. It is therefore, necessary to enjoin them to think of the consequences of their actions before they allow themselves to be used by Agagu in his desperation to stay put in an office he is no longer entitled to,” LP counseled.

 

 

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