Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

The Governor-elect of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko on Sunday chided the incumbent, Dr Olusegun Agagu over his snide comments on the verdict of the Election Petition which nullified his purported victory last month saying that since Agagu has appealed the judgment, he should face his case at the appellate court rather than embarking on endless rude comments in the media.

Mimiko who spoke on the heel of Agagu’s uncharitable allegations in the media last weekend that his cross appeal to his (Agagu’s) so-called 185-ground of appeal to the Justice Garba Nabaruma-led 5-man Election Petition Tribunal judgment which declared him (Mimiko) as the duly elected Governor of Ondo State in the April14, 2007 gubernatorial election was a confirmation of the fact that it erred in law by declaring him (Mimiko) as Governor.

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But the Governor-elect noted that what Agagu has been doing ever since July 25, 2008 when he was sacked by taking the nation’s entire legal system to the cleaners was antithetical to his initial acceptance of the verdict when he stated that: ‘as a believer in the Project Nigeria and the rule of law, we have accepted the verdict…’ this according to him, did not portray Agagu as a believer in the rule of law.

Specifically Mimiko who spoke through his Media Adviser, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi noted that contrary to Agagu’s insinuations that he faulted the Tribunal’s verdict which returned him as governor of Ondo State by his cross appeal, the truth was that the cross appeal was merely to further seek the affirmation validation of the judgment of the lower tribunal at the appeal court to which Agagu has sought adjudication.

“What we said in our cross appeal was that : ‘yes we won the election as the Tribunal had ruled,’ but we insisted that if the tribunal had used all our documentary evidences which were tendered and duly admitted and marked as exhibits by the tribunal and that if it had equally upheld some of prayers in our petition, Agagu would have scored less than 80,000 votes as against the 128, 669 votes which the tribunal said he scored in its verdict.

“Besides, we have only filed two-point ground of cross appeal in Ese-Odo local government. We protested over the rejection in evidence by the tribunal Certified True Copies of Voters’ Registers issued by INEC as used for Poling Units 001, 002, 003, 004,005,008,009, 010, 011, 012, 013 and 014 of Apoi1 Code )1 of Ese-Odo local government. The tribunal had, contrary to various incidences of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act No. 2, 2006 as contained in the Voters’ Registers, counted
election in this ward for Agagu basing its decision on the fact that we did not plead cancellation of this ward in our petition whereas we did in paragraph 21.8 (vi) and (vii), page 56 of our petition. So, how does this become tantamount to a rejection of the judgment as Agagu tried to make it look like in his mischievous media stunts?” Mimiko queried.

He, therefore, appealed to Agagu to face his woes at the appellate court to which he had taken his appeal and refrain from using him as a veritable tool of cheap publicity.

“On April 14, 2007, the people of Ondo State spoke loudly when they overwhelmingly voted for us but Agagu stole our mandate in broad daylight. We went to court to retrieve the stolen mandate and we diligently pursued our case beyond any iota of doubt. The tribunal on July 25 2008 spoke even louder when it gave us our deserving victory. Agagu had since then embarked on a blight of vitriolic attacks on the judiciary even when he knew that it was foreigners like the Michael Tysons, the Muhammed Alis. The dead and the living like the late Prophet Ayo Babalolas, the Justice Idris Kutigis, inanimate objects like stones, walls, trees, curtains, toddlers and body parts such as fingers, noses and legs were those who voted for him in order to get his pyrrhic victory on April 14, 2007.

“Since he had gone to court, he should ceased appropriating and reprobating on a matter that is before the court. In any case, Agagu knew he had a very bad case and this, no doubt, has informed his recourse to being a judge in his on case on the pages of newspapers and in sponsored television advertorials. As we have told him in the past, we shall meet in court and he will lose again and the people of Ondo State will celebrate once more,” Mimiko enthused

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