Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
Election petition tribunal, sitting in Ado-Ekiti, on Saturday, dismissed three petitions filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against the three candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 23 National Assembly elections.
The petitions were filed by Kehinde Agboola, Nicolas Olusola Omotosho and Duro Faseyi against Peter Owolabi, Ibrahim Olanrewaju and Olubunmi Adetumbi respectively.
The three-man panel, in a unanimous judgement read by the tribunal Chairman, Justice D. D. Adeck, in the petition filed by Faseyi against Adetumbi, upheld the preliminary objection filed by the respondent and dismissed the petition.
Other members of the panel, Justice C. N. Mbanu Nwenyi and Justice Khadi Abubakar, delivered judgement on Agboola and Olarenwaju’s petitions respectively.
In the almost six hours judgement, the tribunal held that in the merit of the case, the petition is liable to be dismissed having not being proven as required by the law.
Justice Adeck ruled that having also failed to call witnesses from the venue of the APC primary, the petitioner came to the tribunal empty handed and was bound to go home empty handed and poorer.
The PDP and its candidates, through their counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN), had petitioned the APC, its candidates and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claiming the APC had no candidates for Ekiti North Senatorial District, Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1 and 2, where Adetumbi, Owolabi and Olanrewaju were declared winners respectively by INEC.
Rafiu Balogun and Kabiru Akingbolu were the counsel to the second respondents (candidates) and first respondent (APC) in the matter.
While the APC was the first respondent in the petition, the candidates and INEC were second and third respondents respectively. The grounds of petition and reliefs were the same in the three suits.
The petitioners also deposed that there was no valid candidates for APC since no primary was held by the first respondent (APC) and the nomination of the second respondents (candidates) was null and void.
The plaintiffs also asked the court to declare the votes accrued to the respondents as wasted votes and declare their candidates winners of the elections.
But the lead counsel to the respondents, Balogun, in his defence, argued the claim by the petitioners that the APC did not conduct primary amounts to hear say since the witness called by the petitioner testified that he only saw some protesters alleging that there was no election.
He also argued that the purported INEC’s report on APC primary had no value, stressing that the document told lies against itself, since it was signed a day before the official declaration of the results by the electoral umpire.