Photo: Gov Abiodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State
The Court of Appeal sitting in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday affirmed Ekiti Governor Biodun Oyebanji as the authentic winner of the June 18, 2022 governorship election in the State.
A three-member panel of the Appellate Court’s judges upheld the earlier judgement of the lower court which had declared Oyebanji duly elected.
Delivering judgment, the panel of judges held that Oyebanji and his deputy, (Chief) Mrs Monisade Afuye were duly elected and returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission having scored the highest number of lawful votes.
The Appeal Court also dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of The Social Democratic Party (SDP) former Gov Segun Oni for lacking in merit.
The election petition tribunal in December had struck out Oni’s petition for lacking in merit but the SDP candidate approached the appellate court to challenge the verdict of the tribunal.
The Court ruled that Oni failed to prove his case beyond any reasonable doubt, adding the appellant was unable to prove allegations of vote buying and electoral malpractices with verifiable evidence.
On the appeal challenging the nomination of the governor, the court held that Oyebanji was validly nominated as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) via an election conducted under a peaceful atmosphere.
It further held that the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC National Caretaker panel that conducted the primaries that produced Oyebanji did so in line with the constitution of the party which was an internal issue not to be contested by another party.
On the petition challenging the authenticity of Afuye’s certificate, the court ruled that the move was a plan by the appellant to circumvent the extant rules of law as the respondents presented a valid certificate to the electoral body.
According to the Appeal Court, the appellant failed to prove allegations of certificate forgery against the deputy governor to a convincing level as it fails to present clear evidence to substantiate the allegation.
However, Oni has expressed dissatisfaction with the judgement, and vowed to challenge the court’s decision at the Supreme Court.
Mr. Jackson Adebayo, an aide to the former governor said Oni would exhaust every available judicial means to retrieve Oni’s mandate.
Adebayo said that the Court of Appeal failed to diligently look into the issues presented before it.
He also expressed optimism that his principal would get a favourable judgement at the Supreme Court.
