Gov. Makinde trounces Adelabu at tribunal

Governor Makinde: beats his APC opponent at the tribunal

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ibadan on Monday, upheld the victory of Gov. Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Justice Muhammed Sirajo, who chaired the three-man tribunal said Adebayo Adelabu and the All Progressives Congress failed to prove that Makinde was 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.

He dismissed the petition for lacking merit and awarded N200, 000 cost against the petitioners..

Adelabu had filed a petition against Makinde, disputing the verdict of the March 9 Governorship election in the state.

Adebayo Adelabu: tribunal dismisses case for lack of merit

In the result announced by INEC, Makinde polled 515,621 votes to defeat Adelabu who had 357,982 votes.

The PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were respondents in the case.

The petitioners said that Makinde was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes, adding that the election was marred by over voting and failure to comply with the provision of Electoral Act.

Adelabu, 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.

The 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.

The tribunal said the agents did not witness what happened at the polling units and their testimonies were based on what they were told by the polling units agents

He 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 said that the petitioners called 69 witnesses and tendered 4,164 exhibits while the respondents called 15 witnesses, adding that the testimony of an eye witness must come from the polling units agents who witnessed all that happened from the beginning to the end during the election.

The tribunal said that the petitioners also failed to tender necessary documents that would assist members of the tribunal in proving ballot paper accounting.

He 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.

Counsel to the petitioners, Mr Akin Oladeji, said they would decide on next line of action after studying the judgment.

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