The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by
the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate in Ekiti State,
Kolapo Olusola-Eleka challenging the election of Governor Kayode Fayemi.
Affirming Fayemi’s election, the five-man panel of the
Supreme Court led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko
Muhammad unanimously held that the appeal challenging the outcome of the poll
lacked merit.
Justice John Okoro, who read the lead judgment, affirmed the
judgments of both the Ekiti State Election Petition Tribunal and the Abuja
Division of the Court of Appeal, which had both dismissed the petition
challenging the outcome of the July 2018 poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared
Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress polled a total of 197,459 votes to
defeated Olusola-Eleka and the PDP who placed second with 178,121 votes in the
July 14, 2018 election.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, PDP and Olusola-Eleka had
filed their petition before the Ekiti State Election Petition Tribunal which
sat and delivered its judgment in Abuja.
The petitioners alleged among others in their petition that
the election was marred by a lot of wrongs including non-compliance with the
Electoral Act.
But the tribunal on January 28, 2019, dismissed their
petition and affirmed the results declared by INEC.
The petitioners further appealed to the Court of Appeal,
raising seven issues against the judgment of the tribunal.
But delivering judgment, Justice Stephen Adah who led the
three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, resolved all the seven issues raised
against the appellants and in favour of the respondents – Fayemi, INEC and APC.
Justice Adah dismissed the case for lacking in merit, a
decision the two other members of the panel – Justices Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson
and Emmanuel Agim consented to.
In their further appeal to the Supreme Court, the PDP and
Olusola-Eleka, urged the apex court through their lawyer, Yusuf Ali (SAN), to
upturn the lower court’s judgment.
The appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Friday.
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