THE Federal Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, Ondo State Capital, has affirmed the election of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the APC candidate in the November 16, 2024, governorship election in the state.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, Ondo State, on Thursday affirmed the victory of the Ondo State Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his deputy, Dr Olayide Adelami, in the November 16, 2024, governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress the winner of the poll, having polled a total of 366,781 votes, defeating the candidates of other parties in the poll.
Apart from the PDP, other parties which also filed petitions against the victory of Aiyedatiwa include the Social Democratic Party, the Action Alliance, the Allied Peoples’ Movement and the African Democratic Congress.
They challenged the victory of the governor at the state Election Petition Tribunal, alleging that the election was characterised by irregularities and electoral malpractices at many polling units, which are non-compliant with the electoral law, but the tribunal struck out their petitions, upholding the defendants’ victory.
The election debtors, not satisfied with the tribunal’s verdict, approached the appellate court to challenge the tribunal’s verdict.
In a judgement delivered on Thursday, the three-man panel of appeal court judges – Justice Nimpar Yargata, Justice K.I. Amadi and Justice I.M. Sani, unanimously struck out the appeals, one after the other, for not substantiating the claims of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The appellate court also held that the appellants failed to prove their allegations against the election as they did not show how their claims affected the election in the various polling units, wards and local government areas where the election took place.
The appellate court also ruled that the appellants abandoned their cases as there were no credible witnesses called at the tribunal to back up their claims of widespread irregularities in the various polling units.
To this end, the court affirmed the judgments of the tribunal on all the cases and declared Aiyedatiwa and Adelami as the elected Governor and Deputy Governor of the state, respectively and awarded a sum of N1.5m against the appellants.
