In his 39-ground of appeal, Oyetola, urged the appellate court to reverse the majority decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that sacked him from office, describing it as “perverse”.
However, in the lead verdict that was delivered by Justice Peter Obiora, the tribunal, noted that none of the parties disputed the fact that it was the State Returning Officer that cancelled the initial election It held that upon receipt of the complaints, the Collation Officer was mandated by the law to fill Form EC40G and submit to the Local Government Collation Officer who will in turn transfer the information in the Form EC40GI and hand same over to the State Collation Returning Officer.
After it had deducted the illegal votes from both sides, the panel held that Adeleke got a total of 253,777 valid votes, ahead of Oyetola who it said got 253,476 valid votes in the September 22, poll. He held that under section 140 of the Electoral Act, the tribunal was only empowered to order a re-run or fresh election where it was established that there was substantial non compliance to the Electoral Act.
The appellant argued that having not attended the sitting, lJustice Obiora, could not have seen the two witnesses to be able to examine their demeanour as required. He said the tribunal also acted without jurisdiction by basing its decision to uphold the petition and set aside the return of the appellant on the basis of allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, in relation to the September 22 exercise.
He argued that, having earlier found that accreditation was not done on Form EC8A and that same could not be proved without voters’ register, the tribunal was therefore bereft of the jurisdiction to overrule itself. “The lower tribunal had rightly found that there was no over-voting; there was no voiding of valid votes; that accreditation can only be done through voters’ register; that no single ballot paper was tended before it.
He contendes that the petitioners failed to call their agents from the affected polling units as witnesses, a well as to tender documentary evidence to show that it was the returning officer that unilaterally cancelled the elections.
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