The Ogun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital, has affirmed Governor Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The three-man Tribunal, headed by Justice Hamidu Kunaza thus dismissed the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Oladipupo Adebutu, on the ground that it “lacked merit as a whole.”
In the judgement which lasted about 11 hours, the Tribunal held that the allegations of corrupt practices, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, and ballot stuffing, as well as allegation of certificate forgery upon which the PDP candidate was seeking the disqualification of Abiodun and upturning of his electoral victory in their favour were not proved beyond any reasonable doubt.
On the issue of the witnesses called by the petitioners, Justice Kunaza also described the testimonies of the 94 witnesses called by the PDP as “industrially manufactured, mechanically produced and adopted, contrary to the common occurrence of natural causes” and thereby “proven to be similar, too coincidental and unbelievable to rely on” in determining the petition.
Handling the allegation of certificate forgery leveled against Governor Abiodun, the court held that the petitioners had failed to prove the criminal allegation beyond reasonable doubt by providing any witness from the United States of America (USA) to testify against the second defendant (Gov Abiodun).
In striking out the allegation of vote buying and corrupt practices, the Tribunal held that the allegations were two inseparable twins for which the petitioners have failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt.
Furthermore, the Tribunal held that allegation of certificate forgery and arrest and detention of Abiodun in 1986 were pre-election matters, which ought to have been determined 14 days before the March 18 election.
Affirming Abiodun’s electoral victory, the court dismissed all the grounds on which Adebutu and the PDP had approached the court for justice.
