There are quite a lot of things we are looking forward to in the new year, one of which is the general election to decide who the 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be.
However, pre and post election litigations continue to characterise our electoral process in Nigeria, and indeed the Ekiti election which held earlier this year wasn’t an exception.
On Thursday, the election petition tribunal upheld the election of governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti state and his deputy, Monisade Afuye.
The tribunal says the petition by Segun Oni of the SDP against the election of the Governor, ‘court failed woefully head or tail”.
Recall that in his petition, Segun Oni had claimed that the election was characterised by irregularities. He also argued that it was wrong for the APC Caretaker committee headed by Yobe state governor, Mai Mala Buni to have supervised the primary election process that led to Mr. Oyebanji’s emergence as APC candidate.
The tribunal arrived at Thursday’s judgment as the 180 day electoral act within which it is to hear the petition was expected to lapse on the second day of January 2023.
Reacting to this latest development, APC Publicity secretary, Ekiti state, Segun Dipe said the statement made by the Barrister Owoseni Ajayi, SAN was made in the heat of the moment.
He noted that the case was not dismissed but rather affirmed the victory of Governor Abiodun Abayomi Oyebaji.
Three key issues were treated despite the long narration and they had solutions.
Mr Dipe however stated that it could have been a disaster if the decision had gone the other way.
Speaking further Mr Dipe stated that Governor Abayomi Oyebanji will definitely reach out to Chief Segun Oni as that is the beauty of democracy
“Governor Oyebanji has gone beyond being a politician. In Ekiti, he is a phenomenon, an institution for democracy and right, politicking.
“The reaction from Segun Oni is was made based on the immediate judgments, and heat of the moment.
“These are a false reaction, but I believe that consultation will go on. We want to be magnanimous as much as possible in victory.
” We want to believe that the tribunal has done enough justice. They’ve been pain staking, they have taken their time to treat every issue that came, and they started removing the blocks until the whole situation went flat to its foundation.
“We want to believe Segun Oni will allow sanity to prevail and allow the voice of the people to count in Ekiti.
“The voice of the people today is that Oyebanji should continue in government and should continue to govern , if anything to the contrary. And we thank God that justice was no later, it was seen as done in Ekiti.
“If they want to proceed to an appellate court, we can only wish them well. But we know that, there would not be anything to the contrary at the Appeal Court and at the Supreme Court” Mr Dipe said.
