A’Court dismisses Oke, Akeredolu’s petitions against Mimiko

[Punch]

The Akure Division of the Court of Appeal on Monday dismissed the appeals filed by the candidate for the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Chief Olusola Oke, against the re-election of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

The duo had filed separate appeals before the appellate court against the judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal that had earlier dismissed their petitions, challenging the declaration of Mimiko asthe winner of the October 20, 2012 poll in the state.

However, the Court of Appeal, rather than setting aside the judgment of the tribunal, upheld all the submissions of the judges of the tribunal.

The appellate court, notwithstanding, ruled that the issue of voter register, as raised by the petitioners, was not a pre-election matter but one that the tribunal had jurisdiction to entertain.

All the judges that heard the appeal unanimously agreed in dismissing the appeal in a judgment that lasted one and half hours.

The court held that the appellants failed to prove the allegations of substantial non compliance of the 2012 election with Electoral Act 2010 as amended beyond reasonable doubt.

Delivering judgment on the PDP's petition, Justice Daniel Kalio insisted that the person contesting the results of an election must show how his allegation substantially affected the conduct and the outcome of an election.

Meanwhile, both Oke and Akeredolu in a their reactions on Monday vowed to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court.

The ACN, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Rotimi Agbede, said the judgement came to the party as "a rude shock and a worrisome development."

The party said it was worried by the fact that "a bad precedence is being set in our legal jurisprudence to accomodate illegal injection of names into the voter register in subsequent elections."

The party added, "Consequently, this judgement is going to be challenged at the Supreme Court by the party and its candidate."

Also, the PDP in the state, through a statement by its Director of Publicity, Mr. Wale Ozogoro, said the judgment fell short of the expectation of the Ondo State people, and vowed to challenge it.

Meanwhile, Mimiko has described his victory as the true wish of the people and urged the opposition to join hands with him in the task of building a modern Ondo State that everybody would be proud of.

The Punch