The Akure Division of the Federal Court of Appeal yesterday reserved judgment on the appeal filed by the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the August 9, 2014 Governorship election in Osun state, Senator Iyiola Omisore against the ruling of the state Elections Petition Tribunal, which nullified his petition.
The five member panel of Judges of the court announced through Justice Gana Mcshella at the end of yesterday’s hearing which lasted for over six hours that the date of final judgment on the appeal by Omisore will be passed across to all the parties in the matter through their various counsels.
Senator Omisore, who appealed against the ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal delivered on 6th February, 2015, is asking the appeal Court to set aside the ruling of the tribunal, arguing that the tribunal headed by Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime failed to examine the issues raised in his petition properly.
Omisore also premised his appeal on the ground that the tribunal in its assessment failed to evaluate the evidences submitted by him through experts.
The PDP Governorship candidate had approached the Elections Petition Tribunal following his defeat in the August 14 Governorship election, challenging the results of the election in 17 Local Government Areas of the state where he argued that there were electoral malpractices and rigging.
At the hearing of the appeal yesterday, Lead Counsel to Senator Omisore, Mr Alex Isiyoung (SAN) argued that the tribunal erred in its ruling as it failed to examine all the allegations and issues raised by the petitioner passionately.
He argued that the tribunal failed to address the allegations of corrupt practices and non compliance to electoral acts in the election that produced Governor Rauf Aregbesola and therefore urged the Appeal Court to discountenance the judgment of the tribunal.
He maintained that Aregbesola failed to get the total number of lawful votes in the August 14 Governorship election which eventually produced him, and thereby prayed the court to upturn the ruling of the tribunal.
Isiyoung stressed the need for the Appeal Court to declare Omisore as the winner of the August 14 Governorship election in Osun state, arguing that his client had the highest number of lawful votes in the election.
But, counsels to Governor Aregbesola, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chiefs Akin Olujimi (SAN) and Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) respectively objected the grounds of the appeal, arguing that the tribunal was clear and unbiased in its ruling.
Specifically, the Lead Counsel to Aregbesola, Chief Olujimi said the ruling of the Elections Petition Tribunal which upheld the victory of Governor Aregbesola was unchallengeable as according to him it was decided after thorough investigations.
According to him the appellant made no case at the tribunal as only seven out of 230 witnesses he called made allegations of rigging during the Governorship election.
He, however, argued that out of the seven people there was no polling agent among them, stressing that only polling agents could testify to allegation of rigging in any election.
He added that “even the principal witnesses presented as expert witnesses failed to present expert testimonies. They only looked at electoral materials and made comments, which any literate person could as well do”.
Olujimi, who cited the case of Ngige versus INEC in his submission, maintained that the appeal of the appellant lacked in merit and prayed the court to dismiss the case.
In his submission, counsel to the APC, Mr Akeredolu who prayed the court to strike out the appeal, stressed that there was no reason to fault the ruling of the tribunal in the interest of justice.
Also, counsel to INEC urged the court to strike out the appeal, arguing that “the entire evidence elicited by INEC under cross examination is deem to be the evidence of INEC.”
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