Date: 2012-12-24

Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has alleged possible compromise of the judicial panel hearing the appeal the party filed challenging the ruling of the tribunal which ordered a rerun in the ACN-controlled Offa local council of Kwara State. The party built its suspicion on a meeting Senator Bukola Saraki, Kwara PDP leader, reportedly held with five chieftains of the party from Offa where Saraki allegedly told them to prepare for a rerun election in the council.

Both ACN and PDP just closed their arguments on the case last week and the court is yet to fix any date for the ruling.

But ACN chairman in Kwara, Kayode Olawepo, said in a statement issued in Ilorin that the party got wind of the Saraki/Offa PDP chieftains' meeting where the former reportedly assured the latter of the outcome of the judicial process and told them to prepare for a rerun.

The statement reads: "We wish to alert the world of desperate bids to ensure the PDP rules Offa LG by all means. It is against this backdrop that we condemn in strong terms Senator Bukola Saraki's meeting, on Saturday night in Ilorin, with Offa PDP ward chairmen where he told them with suspicious 'certainty' that there is going to be a rerun election in Offa LG even when the court is yet to give ruling on our appeal against the tribunal judgement.

"We view such certainty and his reported boast that PDP must control Offa at all costs as clear evidence of concluded plot to undermine the course of justice in the case. We urge their Lordships of the High Court to resist whatever pressure being mounted on them to pervert justice. We remind everybody that our society does not need anything capable of truncating public peace.

"Also, we reject PDP's attempts to blackmail the Olofa Of Offa because of his neutral role in the politics of Offa. PDP's desperadoes should respect the traditional role of our Oba as the father of all and refrain from their indecorous abuse of the Olofa because he would not compromise his position."