The senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District, Chief Tolu Odebiyi, has hailed the judicial verdict that affirmed his election to the ninth National Assembly, describing it as victory for democracy and the rule of law.
The National Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Hon Odunjo Odunleye of the Peoples Democratic Party, describing it as lacking in merit.
Odunjo had in the petition EPT/OG/NASS/SEN/04/2019, dated 18th March, 2019 urged the Election Tribunal to order a rerun on the grounds that Odebiyi was not validly returned.
Senator Tolu Odebiyi, in a statement made available to newsmen in his hometown of Iboro, described his victory at the February 23rd National Assembly election as a reward for hard work, progressive and issue-based electioneering of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which endeared the party to the overwhelming majority of the electorate in the state.
The All Progressives Congress cleared virtually all the elective seats, including governorship and the three senatorial posts in Ogun State in the 2019 general elections.
According to Odebiyi, “The petitioner came a distant third in the said election. It is shocking, if not unheard of that a petitioner would not tender a single document either from the bar or through the witnesses called during the trial. The petitioner could not even place before the Tribunal the correct results declared by INEC, which he sought to impugn. The wild and unsubstantiated allegations have rightly been dismissed by the highly respected justices. It’s victory for the rule of law and the people of Ogun West who wholeheartedly gave me and the APC the mandate to represent them in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly. I call on our opponents to accept the judicial verdict and join hands with us to move Ogun West forward.”
Odebiyi thanked the leaders of the APC at the national and state levels for their moral support and called on his teeming supporters to be magnanimous in victory.
Senator Tolu Odebiyi is the son of the founding member of the Action Group, Chief J.A.O. Odebiyi, who was a former Minister of Education in the Western Region and Leader of the Western House of Assembly in 1959.
Chief J.A.O. Odebiyi won elections to legislative seats in 1951, 1956, 1960, 1965, 1979 and 1983, and became the Senate Leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) from 1979 till 1983.
