From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
Former Ekiti State Governor and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in the June 18, 2022 governorship election, Chief Segun Oni, filed an appeal on Monday in Ado Ekiti to challenge the ruling of the Election Petition Tribunal which had dismissed his petition against the election of Mr Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, the All Progress Congress(APC) governorship candidate.
The notice of appeal which has already been pasted at the Notice Board of the Court of Appeal, Ado Ekiti, contained, “upon reading the motion exparte and affidavit deposed to by Aneke Tochukwu dated and filed on the 23rd day of January 2023 and after hearing Stephen Ademuwagun Esq of counsel for the applicants, it is hereby ordered:
“That leave is hereby granted to the applicants to serve the Notice of Appeal in the petition No EPT/EKT/GOV/01/22 between Chief Segun Oni & 1 OR Vs Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji; All Progressive Congress (APC); Mai Mala Buni (The National Chairman, Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee); Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Mrs Christianah Monisade Afuye and its accompanying processes, and all other originating processes in respect of this matter by substituted means on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th respondents, to wit by pasting same at the Notice Board of the Court of Appeal, Ekiti Judicial Division, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.
“Given under the Hand and the Seal of the Honourable Court, this Monday the 23rd day of January 2023.”
In the petition, Chief Segun Oni who disagreed with the results of the election claimed that the APC had no governorship candidate in the June 18 election because the nomination forms of Biodun Oyebanji and his deputy were signed by Mai Mala Buni who as the sitting governor of Yobe State also functioned as the APC National Caretaker Chairman and Extraordinary Convention Committee, an action which contravened section 183 of the 1999 Constitution.
Oni also claimed that the tenure of Buni as National Caretaker Chairman had expired at the time he signed the nomination forms.
Oni also stated in the petition that the deputy governorship candidate, Mrs Monisade Afuye submitted fake WAEC results and certificates to the INEC to contest the election.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.