There was jubilation across Osun
State on Friday after the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja
declared Ademola Adeleke the winner of the elections held in September, 2018.
The three-member panel at the
tribunal, in a split judgment of two-to-one, declared the Peoples Democratic
Party’s candidate the winner of the September 2018 election.
The tribunal, through the
majority judgment, nullified the certificate of return issued to Adegboyega
Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and ordered the commission to issue a fresh one to
Mr Adeleke.
The tribunal, which had earlier
dismissed the preliminary objection filed against the PDP and Mr Adeleke’s
petition, stated that the petitioners failed to prove the allegations of
over-voting in many polling units during the September 22, 2018 election.
It also held that the
petitioners’ complaints of corrupt practices and violent disruption of voting
and disenfranchisement of voters during the September 27, 2018 run-off were not
proved.
But the tribunal, in its majority
judgment, went ahead to uphold the petition on the grounds that the petitioners
successfully proved that there was substantial non-compliance with the
Electoral Act 2010 in the conduct of the September 27, 2018 run-off in 17
polling units.
Dissenting, the Chairman, Ibrahim
Sirajo, in his minority judgment dismissed the petition filed by Mr Adeleke and
the PDP for lacking in merit.
But Peter Obiora, who read the
lead majority judgment, and Ayinla Gbolagunte, who agreed, upheld the petition.
The judgment lasted for about six
hours.
The majority judgment nullified
the September 27, 2018 supplementary election after declaring it illegal and
declared Mr Adeleke the winner of the poll based on the outcome of the
September 22, 2018 election.
Considering the valid results of
the election, the tribunal deducted the votes polled by both the APC and the
PDP in the 17 polling units across many local government areas where it held
that the election was conducted in “substantial non-compliance” with the
Electoral Act.
regret not being allowed to marry
the man of my choice – Patience Ozokwor
It deducted 2,029 “afflicted
votes” polled by the APC in the 17 polling units from the party’s total votes
in the September 22, 2018 election, and deducted 1,246 from PDP’s votes.
According to the tribunal, the
PDP won the election with 254,698 votes, while the APC placed second with
253,452 votes.
Mr Obiora added that the PDP
would still have won the poll even if the tribunal validated the supplementary
election.
He held that if the “afflicted
votes” of 2,029 were deducted from the 255,505 votes polled by the APC at the
end of the September 27, 2018 run-off, the party and its candidate would only
have polled 253,476 votes.
But according to Mr Obiora, the
PDP would have won with 253,777 votes if the afflicted votes of 1,246 votes
were deducted from the party’s 255,023 votes at the end of the supplementary
election.
Mr Obiora said, “By our earlier
calculation, the votes affected by non-compliance are:
“APC: 2,029; PDP: 1,246 which we
hereby nullify.
“If the above votes are deducted
from the scores of the parties as of September 22, 2018 election, the standing
of the parties will be as follows: APC: 254,345 votes, minus 2,029 votes equal
252,315 votes.
PDP: 254,698 votes, minus 1,246
votes, equal to 253,452 votes.
“Perchance the rerun is found to
be valid, and the final scores of the parties declared after the rerun of
September 27, 2018 is allowed to stand, then deducting the votes that were
found to be afflicted by non-compliance shall stand the parties in the
following scores:
“APC: 255,505 votes, minus 2,029
votes, equal to 253,476 votes.
“PDP: 255,023 votes, minus the
afflicted votes of non-compliance which is 1,246, will give us 253,777 votes.
“In both situations, it is
obvious that the petitioners won the election to the office of the Governor of
Osun State.”
The tribunal held that the
election in 17 polling units was conducted in non-compliance with the Electoral
Act by alleged “deliberate failure” of INEC to fill in eight columns on the
result sheets and the number of accredited voters and give an account of usage
of ballot papers.
“We are of the opinion that the
non-recording was deliberate and tailored towards achieving an unwholesome result.”
The tribunal added that aside
from the cases of non-compliance, Forms EC8A and the result sheets of polling
units were discredited during the trial by virtue of alterations noticed on
them.
It said the figures on the
certified true copies of the forms were different from what was on the pink
duplicate copies issued to party agents at the end of the election.
Commenting on the conduct of
INEC, the tribunal stated, “We note that a substantial number of the Certified
True Copies of the Forms EC8A either have figures on them altered or have
figures entered in them in Columns 1 – 8 thereof.
“The alterations in figures and
fresh filling in the columns were not on the pink copies of the Forms EC8A
distributed to the parties’ polling unit agents on the day of the election,
which were tendered before this honourable tribunal.
“The obvious implication of this
unfortunate development is that the first respondent went to work on the
documents after the election, behind the parties.
“The first respondent (INEC)
should realise that it holds an office of public trust and should at all times,
strive to maintain the sanctity of the electoral practice.”
It added that the supplementary
poll was illegal because it was a product of an unlawful cancellation of the
September 22, 2018 election in seven polling units.
It held that the Returning
Officer unlawfully cancelled the September 22, 2018 governorship election in
the state in seven polling units.
It said the “unlawful”
cancellation of the election in the seven polling units by the State Returning
Officer informed the INEC’s decision to declare the results inconclusive and
fixed September 27, 2018 for the supplementary election.
Mr Obiora also noted that Mr
Oyetola’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, had argued that the tribunal could not
nullify his client’s certificate of return issued to him by INEC on the grounds
that the said certificate was not tendered by the petitioners.
But the tribunal held that “an
order of nullification of the said certificate of return is a mere formality”
as “the foundation of the certificate of return issued to the second respondent
has been eroded” by the nullification of Mr Oyetola’s election.
Meanwhile, in his minority
judgment, Justice Sirajo, held that the petitioners did not prove that election
actually held in the seven polling units where results were cancelled.
He added that the petitioners
failed to prove who, in fact, cancelled the results.
He, therefore, held that the
supplementary election of September, 27, 2018 was lawful.
According to Mr Sirajo, ” even if
non-substantial compliance had affected the outcome of the election, the
tribunal, by virtue of Section 140(2) of the Electoral Act, lacked the power to
subtract the votes affected by the non-compliance from the scores of the
candidates and announce a winner.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com