TRIBUNAL CONFIRMS AREGBESOLA'S VICTORY AT THE POLLS

The Osun state governorship election petition tribunal has upheld the re-election of Rauf Aregbesola as governor of the state.

At the election held on August 9, 2014, Aregbesola, contesting as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 394,684 votes to defeat Peoples Democratic Party’s Iyiola Omisore, who recorded 292,747 votes.
But Omisore opened a petition against the governor in October 2014, asking to be declared the winner and for Aregbesola’s victory to be upturned because it was fraught with irregularities, particularly in 17 local governments.
In a judgement, which lasted over seven hours on Friday, the tribunal, headed by Justice Elizabeth Ipejime, ruled that the petitioner failed to prove his case by providing credible evidences.
“On multiple voting, the forensic expert of the petitioner showed that the ballot papers were accordingly used, he did not testify that he encountered any multiple voting,” Ipejime said.
“Without analysing the ballot paper, there can’t be the issue of multiple voting. His examination also does not show any over voting.
“On the substantive suit, nobody came to the tribunal to testify that they have not been able to vote and that those not accredited were not allowed to vote. The appellants have not shown how many of their supporters were refused accreditation.
“The non-stamping of form ECA8, our attention has not been drawn to the need that duplicates have to be signed but it was confirmed that only the original white copies were signed and that the stamp may not even appear on the carbon copies.
“How did the non-stamping of duplicate copies affect the result of the election?”
Other areas were also looked into extensively before the tribunal returned Aregbesola as the duly elected governor of the state and dismissed the case of the petitioner.
On allegation of using O’Yes as Independent National Election Commission (INEC) officials, the tribunal stressed that there was no such evidence, as two O’Yes members, not INEC officials, testified as agents.
The tribunal also held that the evidence led by the petitioners in Ayedaade Local Government lacks any degree of specificity and could not be relied on by the tribunal, as they failed completely to prove any of the allegations.
On Atakunmosa East, the tribunal chairman noted that apart from abandonment of pleading, the testimony of the witness there was unreliable and could not be relied upon. “We do not know how testimony of a single witness can aggregate all the contested polling units in the local government,” she said.
“In Boripe Local Government, the petitioners called only one witness in respect of 23 units and clearly abandoned his pleadings in all other units. The witness is not a polling agent and not competent to give evidence on what was going on in the unit.”
The tribunal noted that the evidence given In Ede South was hearsay and the petitioners failed to lead credible witness. It explained that the petitioners made allegations in 47 polling units in 10 wards, but called prosecution witness 30, a wards supervisor for Ward 2, which contains three units, thereby abandoning 44 polling units.
On Ejigbo Local Government, the tribunal said: “The petitioners made allegations in 58 polling units in nine wards and called three witnesses PW 26, 27 and 28.
“Apart from abandonment of pleading in 55 polling units , the witnesses called by the petitioners is of no assistance to the Petitioners. Their testimonies were not credible”.
The tribunal pointed out in its judgment that PDP and omisore failed woefully in proving their case in the 17 local governments being challenged, noting that the petition lacks diligent prosecution and substantial evidence.
The chairman held that for the petitioner not to have satisfactorily proved his case in any of the 17 local governments, the panel had no reason to void the election.
The tribunal therefore returned Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola the duly elected governor in the August 9 election and dismissed the case of the petitioner.