Oluwole Josiah
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has upheld the victory of Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, at the October 10 2020 governorship election.
The court subsequently dismissed the case brought by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Eyitayo Jegede, against the election of the Governor.
The court’s decision on Wednesday in Abuja, brings to an end the contentions which followed the October 10, 2020 Ondo governorship election.
Mr Akeredolu, the All Progressives Congress’ candidate, was pronounced reelected by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) after the ballots were counted, but the PDP and its candidate disagreed and went to the tribunal.
Mr Akeredolu won at the tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal led by Justice Theresa Orji-Abadua dismissed the petition filed by Jegede while affirming Akeredolu as the winner of the poll.
In its verdict, the Appeal Court had out of 7 issues raised for determination resolved four and half in favour of Mr Jegede and the rest two and a half in favour of Akeredolu.
Not satisfied with the decision of the Appellate Court, Mr Jegede approached the Supreme Court for the invalidation of both the Election Petition Tribunal and Appeal Court judgements.
The Seven Members of the Supreme Court Justices under the Chairmanship of Mary Odili had adjourned till noon on Wednesday after listening to the arguments of all the lawyers of parties in the case.
Upon resumption from the two hours of recess, the court dismmised the petition with four Justices upholding Mr Akeredolu’s victory against the dissenting judgement of three other justices.
The grounds of the petition were that the APC candidate was not validly nominated, as the Governor Mai Malla Buni-led executive was illegally constituted. The petitioners also alleged massive irregularities at the polls.
Reacting to the court’s decision, Mr Akeredolu has described the judgment as an act of God and thanked the judiciary for standing by the truth, advising his opponent to join hands with him to move the state forward.
The Peoples Democratic Party in On do State, however, said the seven justices of the court agreed that there was a violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Kennedy Peretei, Publicity Secretary of the party, said the party was encouraged by the fact that the court upheld the merit of the case, but that Governor Buni would have been joined in the case.
“We argued that Mr Buni needed not to be joined because the party that appointed Buni had already been joined,” said Mr Peretei.
“We are not discouraged. The court is the final court of law. We have to abide by the decision of the court.
“The PDP is a strong party. We will go back to the drawing board and retstrategise.”
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