The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital has sacked a member of the State House of Assembly representing the Ile Oluji/Okeigbo constituency, Nelson Akinsuroju.
Daily Trust reports that Mr Akinsuroju of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was sacked after the March 18, 2023 election that produced him was nullified and declared inconclusive by the election petition tribunal.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Babatunde Fadare, had challenged the election, which produced Mr Akinsuroju, through a petition before the tribunal.
While ruling on the petition, the tribunal ordered a rerun election in six out of the 27 polling units being challenged by the petitioner.
Mr Akinsuroju was announced the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after polling a total number of 10,207 votes, to beat the PDP candidate who polled 9,287 votes in the March 18 House of Assembly poll in the state.
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The declaration by INEC, however, did not go down well with Mr Fadare who petitioned over the victory of the state lawmaker.
He challenged the outcome of the election on the grounds that the poll was not valid for non-compliance with electoral laws and that Mr Akinsuroju was not duly elected for not getting the highest lawful votes cast.
He also urged the court to declare the election inconclusive and order INEC to conduct supplementary elections in the six affected units where elections were disrupted.
The petitioner also joined INEC and APC as respondents in the petition.
In their ruling, the three-man panel led by the Chairman, Rose Soji, ordered a rerun in six affected polling units in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of the state.
Reacting to the ruling, the counsel to Mr Akinsuroju, Remi Olatubora alleged that the judgement was one-sided as it was based on the morality of the case and not the competence of the results.
Mr Olatubora, who was represented by another lawyer, Olumide Ogidan, said the decision of the tribunal would be challenged at the appeal court.
“The judgement shall be studied and shall be appealed within the stipulated time frame, as stated in the Electoral Act of 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, the sacked lawmaker has pleaded for calm among his political supporters, assuring that he would retrieve his mandate from the appeal court.
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