By Chris Ayodele
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and leader of the legal team of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the review of the Supreme Court judgement in Bayelsa State, Chief Wole Olanipekun on Sunday said he did no wrong by seeking for the review of the February 13 judgement which nullified the election of David Lyon.
Olanipekun also said the truth of the judgement will be revealed to the surprise of Nigerians.
The senior lawyer spoke on Sunday at Ikere in Ekiti State during a thanksgiving service to inaugurate a 1,600 capacity church auditorium he donated to Saint Peter’s Anglican Church.
He said he would soon break silence on the judgement of the Supreme Court, noting that when he break silence “the truth about the matter will be revealed soon” to Nigerians.
The apex court upheld its judgement of February 13 which disqualified the candidate of the APC and then Governor-elect of Bayelsa, David Lyon and his deputy, Chief Degi Biobarakuma-Eremionye for alleged certificate forgery by Biobarakuma-Eremionye.
The Supreme Court subsequently declared the candidate of the PDP, Chief Duoye Diri, winner of the poll and was sworn-in as the Governor.
But, dissatisfied with the verdict, APC and it candidates, David Lyon through their counsels, Olanipekun and Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) respectively filed an application before the apex court to seek review of its earlier judgement.
In its judgement the Supreme Court dismissed and held that the applications were without merit and amounted to abuse of court process.
Speaking on the apex court ruling, Olanipekun stated “I have never regretted any of my actions since I started my legal practice, because I always abide by the ethics of the job.
“The truth about the matter will be revealed soon, but I have the conviction that I have done no wrong, because this is a profession I love so much.
“I saw legal profession as a ministry. I am convinced and knew that what we did was within the best tradition in law, I can tell anyone about this.
“But I will speak about the whole thing at the appropriate time, I won’t say more than that now”, he said.
On the killings of Christians by terrorists in the North, Olanipekun advised the church to summon courage and stop being acting cowardly in handling the issue threatening the existence of Christendom.
“I could see the leadership of the church is not speaking up loud enough. Though, I believe we need prayers to overcome insurgency and terrorism. I know the Christains must be cautious about their actions, but they should not act cowardly.
“But I know that no matter how strong the evil forces are, they won’t overrun the power of God, because the power of God is not run through the power of man”.
Olanipekun added that the Church auditorium he built and donated was part of his contributions to the spiritual growth of his people and for the development of tourism potential of the state.
“You are all aware of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican city, Saint Paul Church in London and many others. that are tourist centres . There is no tourist that will come to Ikere today that won’t ask of this church and that is the joy and benefit of it”, he stated.
