By David Adeoye
Oyo State Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, has described his victory at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal as the triumph of truth over falsehood.
The governor stated this in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa, on Monday, in Ibadan.
Makinde was reacting to the tribunal judgment that gave him victory in a petition instituted against him by Mr Adebayo Adelabu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9 governorship election.
He said that he did not expect anything less from the Tribunal ”because truth is always constant.”
The governor expressed appreciation to the people of the state for standing by him before, during and after the election.
He called on the major opposition party in the state, the APC, to join hands with him to work for the good of the state.
He said: “We want to thank the people of Oyo state who have stood behind us before, during and after the election.
“We have remained focused on the task the people of the state committed into our hands and we are pushing on with our agenda for Oyo state.
“What I will say to the APC members is that they should let us forget politics for now; let us all work together for the good of the people of Oyo state.
” Let them key into our agenda to bring prosperity to the state; let us, together, tackle poverty and ensure that our good intentions for the people of the state are realised,” the statement read.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal, sitting in Ibadan, had, on Monday, upheld the election of Makinde as the governor of Oyo state.
Adelabu and his party APC had challenged the declaration of Makinde as the winner of the election by INEC, having polled a total of 515,621 votes as against Adelabu’s 357,982 votes.
The three-man panel of the tribunal, chaired by Justice Muhammed Sirajo, unanimously dismissed the petition, saying that Adelabu failed to prove the allegations of over-voting, improper accreditation, inaccurate ballot counting and non-compliance with Electoral Act.