Ekiti: Tribunal sacks Oni, declares Fayemi governor

Yesterday’s judgement ended the battle Fayemi started against Dr. Olusegun Oni shortly after the governorship election.   Before the court finished reading its judgement, hundreds of supporters of  the ACN had started jubilating when news filtered to them that the appellate court had cancelled the results from Ifaki and Ido-Osi. Our correspondent in Ado-Ekiti reports […]

Yesterday’s judgement ended the battle Fayemi started against Dr. Olusegun Oni shortly after the governorship election.

 

Before the court finished reading its judgement, hundreds of supporters of  the ACN had started jubilating when news filtered to them that the appellate court had cancelled the results from Ifaki and Ido-Osi. Our correspondent in Ado-Ekiti reports that the supporters of the party later went into joyous mood when it became evident that the pendulum of victory had swung in the direction of Dr. Fayemi.

The jubilation later spread to Ado-Ekiti as residents all came out in their hundreds to bid the government of Engineer Olusegun Oni bye. Traders in some major markets in the state were not also left out as they were full of praises to God. Civil servants who were in their various offices when the announcement was made also trooped out to celebrate the exit of Engineer Segun Oni’s government.

Dr. Fayemi, who dedicated his victory to the people of Ekiti said their whose votes and mandate were shattered by falsehood, praised God and lauded “the bravery and commitment of the judges to giving verdict without being biased.” He pointed out that the judges had shown that the judiciary is always the last hope of the common man.

How it started

Fayemi had challenged the return of former Governor Oni in the 2009 re-run election in the 63 of 177 wards in Ekiti State.  He filed a petition on June 2nd, 2009 against Oni’s victory in the April 27th and May 5th, 2009 re-run elections. The reconstituted governorship re-run elections, in a split decision of three to two last year, affirmed Oni’s victory. Then, the judgment delivered by the tribunal chairman, Justice Hamma Barka, upheld Oni’s election on the grounds that Fayemi’s alleged electoral malpractices were not substantial enough to invalidate the results of the polls.

The majority ruling declared Oni winner with 109,000 compared Fayemi’s 106,000 after the deduction of void and unlawful votes.  The minority ruling opposed this by upholding that the petitioner had duly and dutifully proved his case. Two judges supported the minority judgment while three judges endorsed the majority ruling.

Weekly Trust   recalls that the 2009 re-run elections in Ekiti State was marred with violence and intimidation, with many journalists and photo-journalists maltreated.

The then Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, initially refused to announce the result of the re-run election. She first alleged that she was under pressure from an undisclosed quarter, to announce fake result and went into hiding thereafter. Shortly after that, she temporarily went into hiding for a few days only to re-emerge and declare the ousted governor the winner.

Fayemi and the then AC had gone to court and with a load of evidences including human limbs as well as  forensic proof of the forgery the PDP indulged in a horrific mathematical abracadabra that saw the shrinking of Fayemi’s votes and the bolstering of Oni’s votes. Fayemi went on to appeal this judgment and the Appeal Tribunal was to rule that Fayemi got more valid votes than Oni in the election while it ordered re-run election into some wards where there were noticeable evidence of fraud.

However, while the crisis was on-going, Mrs. Adebayo who earlier resigned over the Ido-Osi ward election resurfaced and gave Oni victory. It was also alleged that N250 million was shared among the INEC officials in the state to facilitate the outcome.

At the hearing in July this year, the five-man jury, while throwing out the consolidated motion of Oni, INEC and REC also held that the alleged statement made by Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola at a meeting he allegedly held with Ekiti council chairman at the Ado-Ekiti Government House where he allegedly promised to supply weapons and military uniforms to thugs for use at the election is also relevant to the petition at hand.

In the ruling delivered by a member of the panel, Mr. Justice Suleiman Dikko, the tribunal also ruled that difficulties encountered by the petitioners in getting the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the electoral documents used for the election, the resignation of Mrs. Adebayo midway into the election and her alleged coercion to announce a fake result which violates the provisions of the Electoral Act are also relevant in the case.

Of the 39 paragraphs in contention by the respondents, only Paragraph 15 was declared as irrelevant to the petition and was subsequently struck out by the tribunal. Paragraph 15 touches on an interview Oni granted a national daily in which he alleged that he lost at the Court of Appeal to a red biro.

The respondents, while joining issues with the petitioners, opposed the averments in the paragraphs of the petition on grounds that the averments in these paragraphs raise issues which are not cognizable before the Governorship/Legislative Houses Election Tribunal.

But Fayemi, in his reply to Oni’s notice of preliminary objection to certain paragraphs in the petition, urged the learned justices to dismiss the preliminary objection on grounds that the respondents’ preliminary objection is devoid of any substance.

Oni, INEC and REC had earlier filed separate preliminary objections but the tribunal consolidated them to allow for speedy determination of the motions.

Justice Dikko in the ruling, overruled and dismissed the objections of the first respondent (Oni), and the third and fourth respondents (INEC and REC), holding that issues raised in the 35 other paragraphs are issues to be examined by the tribunal in the course of adjudicating over the dispute that arose from the last governorship re-run poll.

The issue of Mrs. Adebayo, who mysteriously disappeared from the state and resurfaced again to announce the result had caused a stir at the proceedings of the tribunal on Tuesday. But Roland Otaru (SAN), counsel to INEC and REC, had averred that Mrs. Adebayo had a master-servant relationship with her employers and had to obey her superiors.

While urging the tribunal to dismiss the consolidated petition, Fayemi’s counsel, Mr. Yusuf Alli, recalled the circumstances that characterised her disappearance and reappearance, adding that over 30 million Nigerians were watching how the Inspector-General and Information Minister declared Mrs. Adebayo wanted, submitting that the cause and effect of the saga were relevant to the case at hand.

President Goodluck Jonathan congratulated Kayode Fayemi of the ACN on his declaration by the Court of Appeal in Ilorin as the winner of the Ekiti State re-run governorship election held in the state last year. Jonathan in a statement yesterday by his spokesman Ima Niboro, assured Fayemi of full support and cooperation.

Also reacting, the ACN urged is members in Ekiti State to celebrate the victory with great responsibility and not to threaten public peace. The ACN, which reacted through its National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed, hailed the ‘’unflinching loyalty and comportment of the ACN members in Ekiti and beyond all through the tortuous journey to victor.’’ Also, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of the ACN, saluted the judiciary for the victory of Dr. Fayemi and said a new dawn for Ekiti State has set in.