The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bayo Adelabu, has reportedly appealed judgment of the election petition tribunal that dismissed his petition against the victory of Governor Seyi Makinde.
It was gathered that on Saturday, 5th October, 21 days after the tribunal delivered the judgement, Adelabu appealed the judgment.
Recalled that the Adelabu and his party, APC, had challenged the declaration of Makinde by INEC as winner of the March 9 governorship election in Oyo State.
Makinde had polled 515,621 votes to defeat his closest rival, Adelabu, who had 357,982 votes, while PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission are also respondents.
According to Adelabu in the suit, Makinde was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes, adding that the election was marred by over-and failure to comply with the provision of Electoral Act.
Adelabu has, therefore, prayed the tribunal to declare him the winner of the election, adding that he scored the highest number of lawful votes; or, alternatively, the tribunal should nullify the election and order a re-run.
Chairman of the three-man tribunal, Justice Muhammed Sirajo, who delivered the unanimous judgment said the testimonies of the ward and local government agents called by the petitioners could not be relied upon.
According to the tribunal, the agents did not speak the truth but only relied on what they were told by the polling units agents.
He had said that 32 pieces of evidence, out of the 69 witnesses called by the petitioners, were hearsay because the petitioners were ward and local government collation agents; while the remaining 37 were polling unit agents.
Sirajo had said that the petitioners called 69 witnesses and tendered 4,164 exhibits; while the respondents called 15 witnesses, adding that the said testimony of an eyewitness must come from the polling units agents who witnessed all that happened from the beginning to the end during the election.
The tribunal had said that the petitioners also failed to tender necessary documents that would assist members of the tribunal in proving ballot paper accounting.
He had said that it was not only the responsibilities of petitioners to tender documents but also to prove that the alleged irregularities in the election substantially affected the outcome of the election.
Sirajo had said that the petitioners failed to prove that the respondents were not validly elected by majority of lawful votes.
“The petitioner failed to prove the allegation of non-compliance, non-accreditation, over voting and corrupt practices that would warrant the tribunal to nullified the election,“ he said.
Sirajo, who said that the petition lacked merit and stood dismissed, had awarded N200,000 cost against the petitioners.
