Appeal Court dismisses Segun Oni’s suit; affirms Oyebanji as Ekiti governor

The Court of Appeal has affirmed the election of  Biodun Oyebanji at the Ekiti state governorship election held on June 18, 2022.

Delivering the judgment on Tuesday, a three-member panel of the court dismissed the appeal filed by Segun Oni, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), for lacking merit.

Oyebanji, former secretary to the state government (SSG), was declared the winner of the election after securing victory in 15 of the 16 LGAs in the state.

The governor, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had 187,057 votes, defeating Oni who polled 82,211 votes, and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who got 67,457 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, Oni filed a petition against Oyebanji and the APC before a three-member tribunal chaired by Wilfred Kpochi.

Oni had claimed in his petition that Oyebanji’s election was characterised by irregularities.

He also argued that it was wrong for the Mai Mala Buni-led APC leadership to have supervised the primary that produced Oyebanji as the governorship candidate.

Additionally, he alleged that Monisade Afuye, now Ekiti deputy governor, presented fake WAEC results to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

On December 29, the tribunal dismissed Oni’s petition.

Aggrieved, the SDP governorship candidate proceeded to the Court of Appeal canvassing the same issues raised at the tribunal.

In the judgments delivered virtually via Zoom, Hamma Barka who read the lead judgment agreed with the judgment of the tribunal.

On the allegation of certificate forgery against the deputy governor, Barka held that Oni ought to have called witnesses including a staff of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to prove his allegations.

All other issues raised were resolved in favour of the respondents.

Having resolved all the issues against the appellant, the appeal was dismissed for lacking merit.

The appellate court also awarded N200,000 cost against the appellant in favour of the fourth and fifth respondents.

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