Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has commended the judgement of the Court of Appeal which affirmed his victory in the March 9 governorship election in the state.

In a statement on Monday by his Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, he declared that the mandate given to him by the people of Oyo cannot be taken through the backdoor.

“There is no ambiguity as to the state of things in our pacesetter state, as far as the election of March 9, 2019, is concerned. Our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election,” the statement said.

It added, “The victory was reaffirmed by a ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Ibadan, the state capital. On Monday, the Court of Appeal, also sitting in Ibadan, delivered its judgement on the appeal by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adebayo Adelabu.

“In its ruling, the Appeal Court refused to grant any of the three key reliefs sought by the APC candidate. The Court refused to nullify the election; it refused to order a fresh election and it also refused to order the retrial of the petition.”

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Unprecedented Development

The governor noted that with the above being the reality of the outcome of the appellate court ruling, his election has been reaffirmed.

According to him, nothing in the ruling of the appellate court affects the returns made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and there is nothing that tampers with his mandate

“Governor Makinde, hereby, urges the good people of Oyo State to remain calm and refuse to be provoked by agents of disruption who are seeking to upturn the truth, which remains constant against all odds.

“We also wish to enjoin the people of Oyo State to ignore the doctored reports in some media outlets, which are merely quoting the judgement of the Court of Appeal out of context,” the statement said.

It added that the preference of the people of Oyo was as clear as day and night, with the clear margin of votes between Governor Makinde (515,621) and Mr Adelabu (357,982).

The governor reassured residents that he would not be deterred from taking the state to greater heights through the implementation of his four-point service agenda.

He also insisted that positive governance and unprecedented development would continue to be the portion of the people through his tenure.