Ekiti: Tribunal affirms Fayemi’s victory

The Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the victory of Kayode Fayemi as the lawfully elected governor of the state.

The PDP and its candidate, Prof Kolapo Olusola, had challenged INEC’s declaration of Fayemi as winner of the July 14, 2018 election.

However, the tribunal’s three-man panel in its unanimous judgment read by Justice Sulaiman Belgore, held that the various allegations raised against the election conducted by INEC were not proven as required by law.

The tribunal dismissed the claims by the petitioners that Fayemi at the time of the election was not qualified to stand for governorship election on the grounds of his alleged indictment by the Justice Oyewole Commission of Inquiry.

The judge held that Section 182 of the 1999 Constitution relied upon by the petitioners to get the APC candidate disqualified had been deleted by the alteration done to the constitution on July 16, 2010 by the National Assembly when the alteration took effect.

In all, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove that they scored higher number of votes in the election and that they also failed to prove that Fayemi was not validly returned as the winner.

The tribunal held that it was established beyond reasonable doubt that the APC candidate in the election scored 197,459 votes as against the 178,121 votes scored by Olusola to emerge winner of the poll.

The tribunal also held that there was no evidence that the agents of the petitioners were forced to sign the result sheets which they did on the election day.

Justice Belgore, therefore, agreed that Fayemi was lawfully returned and that the petition against him failed because it lacked merit and was therefore dismissed in its entirety.

However, Olusola had described the judgement as “perversion of truth of the highest order and rape of democracy.”

Olusola in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Onaopemipo Akinloye, said the judgement of the tribunal upholding the victory of Fayemi could not stand “because it doesn’t represent the truth” and vowed to appeal it.

Olusola said he was surprised despite the avalanche of evidence of massive electoral fraud allegedly committed by the APC and INEC which he placed before the tribunal, it nonetheless validated Fayemi’s election.