The Osun State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of using Osun Defender, an Osogbo based newspaper, to publish falsehood to the public that the governorship candidate of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore and the Presidency, are shopping for corrupt justice of the Court of Appeal to handle Omisore’s appeal.
The Chairman of the PDP in Osun State, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, said this in a statement in Osogbo on Thursday.
Omisore’s appeal, challenging Aregbesola’s victory in the August 2014 governorship election, was dismissed by the Election Petitions Tribunal headed by Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime.
Omisore has since appealed the ruling.
The PDP chairman said the governor was using the newspaper to defame its flag bearer in the polls and to tarnish the image of the party.
The PDP stated that Aregbesola was known for “telling barefaced lies” and accusing the opposition of any negative thing he was planning to carry out.
The PDP statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a news item published in Osun Defender with the banner headline: ‘Osun governorship tussle: Presidency, Omisore scout for compromising Appeal court judges.
“In the said publication, Osun Defender, a rag sheet that is being deployed by Governor Rauf Aregbesola to publish libelous matters and disseminate falsehoods against the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, inferred that the judiciary is a cesspool of corruption and it is for the highest bidder.
“Ogbeni Aregbesola and APC are known for their penchant for telling barefaced lies. On several occasions, they have cried wolf where none existed.
“It has therefore become a stock in trade for them to ascribe to others the machinations they want to unleash on opponent from time to time. The whole world knows how this pernicious tendency has made a career of corrupting institutions in the country in the last 16 years.
“Apart from overwhelming evidence that we have canvassed before the Court of Appeal, the documentary evidence titled, ‘Eru Ibo, how Aregbesola rigged August election’, that was released last year, has become Aregbesola’s nemesis”.
In a counter-response, the All Progressives Congress Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, said the PDP and its candidate should sue for libel if the newspaper had defamed them in anyway.
According to Oyatomi, the PDP were fond of labeling people, adding that its attempt would not succeed this time around.
Oyatomi said, “All their claims that Aregbesola is behind the story is balderdash. They are fond of labeling people but that will not fly this time around.
“I am not speaking for Osun Defender and I don’t know how they got their story but the PDP knows that if a newspaper defames them, they can sue. They should do just that if they think they have been defamed in anyway”.
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