The Akinlade Mandate Group has rejected the appointment of a Lagos State Judge, Josephine Coker as Head of the newly reconstituted election petition tribunal in Ogun State.
In a statement signed by the group’s Publicity Secretary, Adeolu Adekoya, the group called for a fair, independent and neutral panel to be set up in replacement.
Below is the full statement:
The Akinlade Mandate Group (AMG) hereby totally reject the appointment of a judge of the Lagos judiciary, Josephine Coker as the head of the reconstituted election petition tribunal in Ogun State. Hence, we call for a fair, independent and neutral panel to be set up in replacement.
We believe that Justice Coker is a close ally of the vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo and former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and can therefore be influenced by the duo in the proceedings and eventual judgement.
We wish to state further that the call by the APC to disband the former election petition tribunal in the state, and the replacement by the new panel headed by Justice Josephine Coker are all deliberate attempts to halt the process, and ultimately deny Hon Adekunle Akinlade of the APM the mandate popularly given to him by the good people of Ogun State in the just concluded governorship election.
Such actions we will describe as Judicial fraud and we will continually reject until the panel is neutral enough to deliver true justice. We do not want and will not accept such bad precedences in Ogun State.
We restate our commitment to continually take all necessary steps as well as monitor all processes and proceedings to ensure that the mandate freely given to Hon Adekunle Akinlade of the APM by the good people of Ogun State in the last Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections through the ballot is gotten back
Adeolu Adekoya
Publicity Secretary
Akinlade Mandate Group
