2023 Poll: Tribunal Affirms Osun APC Assembly Member’s Victory

• Kazeem Badmus

Osun State National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, has upheld the victory of the All Progressives Congress APC candidate for the Boripe/Boluwaduro State Constituency in the 2023 general elections, Mr Popoola Simon Olufemi.

Popoola was returned elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission but the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party at the poll, Abayomi Aina, approached the Tribunal seeking nullification of APC’s candidate’s victory.

OSUN DEFENDER reports that the APC candidate polled 15,594 votes to defeat PDP’s Aina, who got 14,817 votes at the election.

Aina and the PDP were listed as 1st and 2nd petitioners in the petition marked EPT/OS/SHA/02/2023.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Popoola and APC
were marked as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents.

Delivering the judgement, the
panel, in a unanimous decision, dismissed Aina’s petition and upheld Popoola’s victory.

In the judgement read by Justice Jibril Umar, on behalf of Justice Ado Yusuf Birnin-kudu, the Chairman of the panel, and Justice Ngozi Oyeke, the panel dismissed Aina’s petition, saying the petitioners failed to prove that they won the poll.

Umar said, “The tribunal hereby dismissed the petition for lacking the substance needed. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the victory of the respondents in the election held in Boluwaduro/Boripe State Constituency, Osun State on 18th March, 2023.

Reacting to the judgement, Mr Muhydeen Adeoye Galadima, the counsel, who represented the respondents in the matter, during an interview said, “It is best described as judicial conviction to upholding the democratic principles.

“The petitioners had challenged the return of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents alleging that the election was marred by widespread irregularities.

“However, the petitioners failed woefully to substantiate these wild allegations with any iota of evidence as all the witnesses assembled by the petitioners came to give hearsay evidence. The Tribunal therefore agreed with the respondents and dismissed the petition.”

END.