…as judges unanimously affirm Gov’s victory, throw out all five petitions

•’Agboola Ajayi, PDP’s allegations lacking merit, stillborn’

•Tribunal’s verdict reaffirms will of the people — Aiyedatiwa

By Ayodele Popoola & Adedotun Ajayi

The Ondo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Akure, on Wednesday, upheld the victory of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 2024 election.

The tribunal dismissed five separate petitions filed by opposition parties challenging Aiyedatiwa’s victory in the November 16 governorship poll, ruling that they were incompetent, lacked merit, not diligent and frivolous.

This is coming on the heels of the failure of two earlier cases to upturn the victory of the governor and his deputy, Dr. Olayide Adelami in the governorship poll.

On Wednesday, tribunal declared that the election could not be annulled based on claims of non-substantial noncompliance with the Electoral Act as the petitioners failed to provide sufficient and specific material facts to support their cases.

In the judgments delivered by a three-member panel, including Justice Benson Ogubu, Justice Imelda Etiape, and Justice Daurabu Sikkam, Aiyedatiwa’s victory was unanimously affirmed, and all petitions against him were dismissed.

The five political parties that filed the petitions are: the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples’ Movement(APM), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP)

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) had declared that Aiyedatiwa of the APC secured a total of 366,781 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ajayi of the PDP, who polled a total of 117,845 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, the aggrieved parties and their candidates sought the tribunal’s intervention, requesting the nullification of INEC’s declaration of Aiyedatiwa and the APC as winners, and called for a fresh election to be conducted by the INEC.

According to the PDP’s prayer, the election should be declared invalid on the grounds that the deputy governor, Adelami,
forged the credentials presented to INEC to enable his qualifications, averring non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and that the election results did not reflect the wishes of the electorate.

The PDP alleged that Aiyedatiwa was not duly elected by the majority of the vote case, maintaining that the November 16 election was marred with irregularities and cases of overvoting.

The petitioners emphasised that the irregularities included multiple thumbprinting and violence as well as the alleged failure to input the serial numbers of electoral materials in Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines in various polling units in the state.

Similarly, AA, through its National Chairman, Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, also petitioned the tribunal, asserting that Aiyedatiwa’s declaration as the winner was illegal and void due to noncompliance with the provision Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution, by not uploading the name of its legal party National Chairman, Omoaje on the INEC portal.

Omoaje claimed that the party was not permitted to nominate its legitimate governorship candidate, alleging that INEC imposed Akinnuli Omolere as the party’s candidate.

He noted that the unlawful disobedience of the INEC to comply with all provisions of the Electoral Acts, as well as the Court orders affected the party party chance of winning the election.

While SDP and its candidate, Benson Akingboye lodged their petition, insisting that there were discrepancies in vote entries in Form EC8A, over-voting, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

Meanwhile, the respondents through their various counsel urged the tribunal to dismiss all the petitions for lacking substance.

In his judgment, Justice Ogubu refused to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to conduct a fresh governorship election in Ondo State as requested by the petitioners.

The tribunal held that the prayer, which was contained in a petition that was brought before it by the PDP and its gubernatorial candidate could not be granted as the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law.

While striking out the petition for being incompetent, the panel noted that whereas the petitioners alleged that the governorship election held in the state on November 16, 2024 was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, they, however, failed to adduce any credible evidence to establish the allegations and it thus remained unproved.

There is no way that the tribunal would know the level of noncompliance during the election as there were no cases of noncompliance that were impactful on the outcome of the election, the judges concurred.

Describing some of the averments in the petition as “vague”, the tribunal also held that allegations against Governor Aiyedatiwa’s victory were not substantiated.

On the ground of the alleged submission of a false certificate to the INEC, the tribunal held that there are judgments on the issue from the courts of competent jurisdiction and the judgments are binding on the tribunal, and the ground was struck out.

Similarly, on the grounds of voting without accreditation and over-voting, the tribunal held that there was no evidence to prove the allegation, as none of the voting materials were tendered as required by law.

In the same vein, the tribunal dismissed another petition by the Action Alliance, AA, to nullify Governor Aiyedatiwa’s election.

The tribunal said AA in its petition was raising a pre-election matter that it does not have the jurisdiction to entertain and that the second petitioner is a stranger to the petition as it did not participate in the election.

The tribunal held that Omoaje who filed the joint petition had no locus standi to institute the case, and so, it ruled that Omoaje did not participate in the governorship election and as such had no business questioning the validity of the election.

The tribunal further held that Omoaje’s grouse against the election was that he was not recognised as the National Chairman of the Action Alliance for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the poll but it was held that his claims have no basis in the Electoral Act 2022.

It held that the petitioners needed cogent evidence to prove the ground of noncompliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, adding that its grounds were insignificant and not substantial in a serious petition like this, as they did not affect the substantial outcome of the election.

The tribunal stated that elections are not determined by public opinion or propaganda, and deemed the petitions as a waste of both the tribunal’s time and taxpayers’ money, declaring that as stillborn.

It finally declared that the petitioners had failed to provide evidence for any of the reliefs sought.

Aiyedatiwa reacts lol

Reacting to the verdict, Ondo State Governor, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa expressed gratitude to God and the people of the State.

He said: “I give thanks to Almighty God, who orchestrated this journey from the beginning and used the good people of Ondo State. Over 366,000 residents gave us their mandate on November 16 last year to continue governing this state as the seventh democratically elected governor,” he added.

He declared that the tribunal’s judgment reaffirmed the will of the people.

“That mandate has now been validated by the tribunal. While some political parties tried to overturn the people’s decision through the back door, the judiciary has fulfilled its role by upholding the choice made by the majority of voters across the 18 local government areas of the state,” he said.

The governor called on all the opposition politicians to join him in moving the state forward, adding that his doors are always open.

“From the very day I was declared the winner, I have called on the opposition to join us in developing Ondo State. If they truly have the interest of the state at heart, they are welcome to bring their ideas forward so that we can work together for the progress of our dear state,” he said.