By our Reporter
the Ondo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on Wednesday in Akure upheld the victory of Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa in the Nov.16, 2024, election and declared petitions against him as speculative.
In a unanimous judgment, the three-member panel headed by Justice Benson Ogbu said that the petitioners were unable to prove the allegations of overvoting and noncompliance with the Electoral Act 2022 “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Justice Benson Ogbu, Justice Imelda Etiape, and Justice Daurabu Sikkam affirmed Aiyedatiwa’s victory and dismissed all petitions against him.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the tribunal, which began sitting on Jan. 31, received five petitions challenging the election outcome.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Aiyedatiwa, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), winner of the election.
The five petitioners sought the nullification of the election on the grounds of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The petitioners are the Action Alliance( AA) and its candidate, Mr Abdullahi Olowokere, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Chief Bamidele Akingboye.
Others are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Mr Agboola Ajayi; the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and its candidate, Kolawole Ogunfeyimi; and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and its candidate, Mr Adeyemi Nejo.
The respondents are APC, Aiyedatiwa, and his running mate, Mr Olayide Adelami, and INEC.
Mr Ishaka Dikko and Bankole Akomolafe, the PDP’s counsel, argued that substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act marred the election and asked the tribunal to void Aiyedatiwa’s certificate of return.
On the other hand, Aiyedatiwa, his deputy, Adelami, and the INEC enjoined the tribunal to dismiss the petitions.
The tribunal, however, said that the allegation of vote buying could not be substantiated or supported with facts.
It added that the petitions lacked merit that could be established as fact to nullify the election’s outcome, as the petitioners had asked.
The AA, through its National Chairman, Mr Adekunle Omoaje, also petitioned the tribunal, asserting that Aiyedatiwa’s declaration as the winner was illegal and void due to non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution.
Omoaje claimed that the party was not permitted to nominate its legitimate governorship candidate, alleging that INEC imposed Akinnuli Omolere as its candidate.
AA’s alleged exclusion of its candidate from the ballot paper on election day caused the panel to hold that the party lacked locus standi to initiate the petition because it had no candidate in the election.
According to the panel, AA should have instituted a case at a high court to mandate INEC to submit its alleged rightful candidate for the election instead of bringing the matter to the tribunal, which has no jurisdiction over pre-election matters.
Also, regarding APM’s allegation of evidence of corrupt practices during the election, the panel struck out the petition, saying it was inconsequential because there were no material facts to support the claim.
The tribunal also said that the SDP failed to prove its allegations of overvoting and corrupt practices by INEC in favour of the APC.
It added the SDP, and its candidate showed no proof that there was overvoting, nor was it able to tender evidence that there was falsification of the election’s result as claimed in its petition.
The tribunal stated that public opinion or propaganda does not determine elections. He described the petitions as a waste of the tribunal’s time and taxpayers’ money, noting that SDP and its candidate failed to provide evidence for any relief sought.
The tribunal further stated that the petitions instituted by ADC and its candidate were stillborn and dead on arrival because the petitioners could not link a single polling unit to the alleged electoral malpractices.
It also unanimously delivered its judgment on the petitions filed by PDP and its governorship candidate, Agboola Ajayi.
PDP submitted its petition on three grounds: allegation of fake academic qualifications of the deputy governor Olayide Adelami, non-compliance with electoral laws by INEC, and Aiyedatiwa not scoring the lawful number of votes during the election.
The tribunal said that PDP presented 22 witnesses during the proceedings of the tribunal’s sittings.
Therefore, it dismissed the allegation of non-academic qualification levelled against the deputy governor since it was a pre-election matter decided by the apex court, stating that “the petition should not have been filed at all.”
The tribunal noted that the statistics and forensic expert’s evidence from PDP were faulty because the expert could not provide any identification or proof to substantiate his expertise. Subsequently, the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act was dismissed.
It said that the petitioners’ documents presented as evidence could not be verified by the tribunal and that the petitioners could not also tender evidence of an allegation of overvoting during the election.
The three-member panel, therefore, dismissed all the petitions for lack of merit.
