THE Ondo State Government on Tuesday declared that it was unaware of the shift in the date of the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the case between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last governorship election, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu and Mr Eyitayo Jegede respectively.

It was gathered that the appellate court sitting in Akure, the state capital, had fixed Wednesday, June 15, 2021, to deliver the judgment on the appeal filed by the PDP’s candidate, but a media report said the judgment might not hold on Wednesday following alleged pressure on the judges from ‘above’ and a serving minister.

One of the grounds of the petition was the nomination of Akeredolu as the candidate of the APC, which the opponent said, was faulty.

The tribunal, however, struck out the petition of the PDP candidate for lack of merit.

Not satisfied with the judgment of the lower court, Jegede proceeded to the court of appeal to challenge the tribunal verdict and the appellate court was said to have communicated the date to all the parties involved in the case.

In a reaction, the state government, through the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Donald Ojogo, said the government could not say anything about the shift in the date as such was at the discretion of the judges of the court.

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He said, “We don’t want to subscribe to the fact that any minister who is a member of the APC would want to cut corners to undermine and possibly unseat Akeredolu because of the views he holds strongly on national issues.

“As regards whether or not the date would be shifted, it is at the discretion of the honourable panel which comprises eminent and distinguished jurists.”

Similarly, the PDP, through its Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, denied awareness of the judgement date postponement.

He said, “It is not true; nothing like that from our camp here. It is the APC and Akeredolu’s camp that are trying to mount pressure on the panel through the CJN.

“But we believe in the judges; they are capable and will do justice accordingly. We don’t need to put pressure on the judges to postpone the judgement.”