Tribunal nullifies Adeyeye’s election, declares Olujimi winner in Ekiti

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ado
Ekiti on Tuesday nullified the election of the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, of the
All Progressives Congress in the February 23 election.

The three-member tribunal chaired by Justice Danladi Adeck, in a
unanimous decision, declared the former Senate Minority Leader,
Senator Biodun Olujimi, of the Peoples Democratic Party as the
winner of the election in the Ekiti South Senatorial District.

In the judgment, the tribunal nullified elections in some
polling units which left Olujimi polling 54,894 votes to defeat
Adeyeye, who scored 52,243 votes.

Justice Adeck predicated the tribunal’s verdict on nullification
in some units and recount of the ballots by the contending forces
as granted.

The judge said that the petitioner proved those cases of
criminal allegations of non-compliance with the provisions of the
Electoral Acts and other corrupt practices raised in her petition
beyond a reasonable doubt.

He said, “In Ikere, Gbonyin and Emure local governments, the
petitioner was able to prove cases of over-voting and votes in
those units were expunged from the ballots.

“It is not tenable to say that marked ballots were not properly
deposited in the boxes because when this did not happen, then it
will lead to over voting and will affect counting at every level of
collation.

“To avoid this pitfall, those elections must be expunged in
order not to vitiate the electoral process. Therefore, after those
votes were deducted, PDP was left with 54,894 while the respondent
polled 52,243.

“The petitioner having polled the highest number of lawful votes
should be declared the winner of the election. We hereby declare
the petitioner the winner and he is hereby returned elected. We
hereby direct the INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return from
the respondent and issue same to the petitioner”, the chairman
said.

Olujimi, dissatisfied with the verdict of the Independent
National Electoral Commission which returned Adeyeye as the winner
of the election, had approached the tribunal seeking to be declared
as the winner of the election.

She had prayed the tribunal to, in the alternative, “nullify
Adeyeye’s victory and order supplementary election accordingly in
the district”.

The PDP candidate had said that she scored the highest number of
valid votes in the election which she said was fraught with
irregularities as she prayed the tribunal to cancel votes in areas
“found to be incredibly mared with irregularities like over voting,
multiple thump printing, ballot snatching, ballot stuffing and
improper ballot counting to know the actual winner of the
poll.”

Olujimi had also accused INEC of dereliction of duties, saying
most of the documents used for the conduct of the election were not
duly signed by agents.

But Adeyeye countered Olujimi’s submission, saying INEC did what
was right and constitutional by declaring him winner having found
to have got the highest number of lawful votes.

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