The controversies trailing the governorship election in Ekiti State since April 14, 2007 are nearing the terminal point as the governorship candidate of the Action Congress in the state, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Wednesday filed an appeal against the majority judgment which dismissed his petition challenging the victory of Governor Segun Oni.
It is worrisome that the political contest which started on April 14, 2007 is yet to produce a clear winner even as those who emerged winners in the general elections of that year are already nearing the end of their tenures. As it were, Oni and Fayemi are still locked in the final lap of their battle to determine who should be the legal occupant of the state’s Government House.
The Election Petitions Tribunal headed by Justice Hamma Barka on May 5 delivered a split judgment where three of the five-man panel upheld the victory of Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party. But two other members of the panel, Justices Abiodun Adebara and Obande Ogbuiyan, nullified Oni‘s victory in their verdict declaring Fayemi as the duly elected governor.
The petitioners – the AC and its governorship candidate – have expressed dissatisfaction over the majority verdict and vowed to take the case to the Court of Appeal, being the final arbiter. Oni and the PDP also said that they were considering filing a cross appeal against the minority judgment which made a mess of the majority verdict.
Fayemi, while encouraging his supporters to be steadfast said, ”It‘s has been a long struggle. On April 14 2007, our people from various communities and constituencies trooped out in their number, and voted in multitude for me. We must thank God for what we have been through is a marathon journey not a sprint.
“This struggle, in case you are in any doubt, is far beyond becoming governor and what am I going to get in Fayemi‘s government. No, it‘s gone beyond that. What we have been through in the last three years demonstrates clearly to us that power does not give up of itself voluntarily. We have a responsibility, as genuine progressives, to continue to pursue the truth in the most appropriate manner that we can defend.”
The AC governorship candidate said he was sure of getting justice at the appellate tribunal. According to him, the appeal panel will correct the mistakes made by the tribunal in its majority verdict. He said that the appeal court in its verdict in 2009 vindicated him even when all the five judges at the first tribunal constituted to hear dispute which arose from 2007 poll dismissed his petition. He likened the minority judgment delivered by two judges to an away goal in a football match. He said the minority verdict carried more weight than the majority because it was an away goal which superseded the home goal scored by the PDP.
Sounding optimistic about his chances at the appellate court, Fayemi said, ”We have been there before and we got justice. I have no doubt that we will get justice at the end of this struggle. Not for the sake of Kayode Fayemi but for the sake of those numerous people who are still waiting for their March salaries in May. For the sake of those children who are being given contaminated milk, for the sake of the sick who have no bed in the theatre to lie on. That is why we cannot give up.
”Our legal team did everything in the book. They did marvellously and we must thank them. They left nothing behind, at least, as far as the law book of the country is concerned.
”All you need to do as a detached observer is to take judgment one (majority judgment) and read it and count the number of authorities cited in it- they are only three. They (the authorities) are Section 146, Electoral Act 200 and the Evidence Act; nothing was cited from the higher court that has proved any of the issues which are not new issues but issues which have come up at various tribunals in the past. Substantial compliance, violence, irregularities, alterations, are issues that have been addressed by superior courts in this country in the past. For anyone to give a judgment without any reference to these- it simply befuddles the mind. But if you read the minority judgment, there were 72 authorities cited – mostly from superior courts.”
The majority judgment had been heavily criticised by members of the public especially in the state. Analysts have condemned the verdict which forgot the violence and how journalists and election observers were brutalised during the rerun election.
For instance, a constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itsay Sagay, SAN, while criticising the verdict, described it as a disgrace to the judiciary. Others said that the judgment would not stand at the Court of Appeal because it is mumbo-jumbo while some described it as an abiku verdict.
But the PDP and its supporters have hailed the verdict, describing it as brilliant and lucid. The party accused the AC of being behind the public outcry against the judgment, alleging that some analysts were paid to vilify the judgment.
Oni, who attributed his victory at the tribunal to God, said it did not come to him as a surprise. The governor who berated those criticising the verdict, called on the National Judicial Council to investigate all election petition cases from the state since 2007 with a view to ascertaining if any of the parties had been undeservedly favoured by either the tribunal or the appellate court.
The governor who spoke through his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Taiwo Olatubosun, said the cases to be reviewed included all petitions emanating from the 2007 general elections as well as the rerun governorship and senatorial polls.
He said, ”We hereby appeal to the NJC, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of Court of Appeal to constitute a panel of eminent jurists to review all cases (at tribunal and appeal levels) arising from the elections in 2007 and 2009 in Ekiti State to identify if any party has been undeservedly favoured.
”This should be a serious indication that Nigeria indeed wants electoral reform because the electoral processes and its tribunals are one and the same for the achievement of good conduct and fair results in the electoral process.”
According to the commissioner, the severe criticisms against the verdict which favoured Oni were orchestrated to intimidate the Court of Appeal to favour the Action Congress governorship candidate.
Similarly, the 13 PDP lawmakers at the House of Assembly supported the call on the NJC to institute a probe into all election cases in the state. The Leader of the PDP lawmakers in the Assembly, Mr. Layi Oke, who read the statement at a briefing accused the AC of using the public criticisms against the verdict which upheld Oni‘s victory as a blackmail to sway the appeal tribunal to favour it.
Oke said, ”No doubt we are aware that this orchestrated campaign is targeted at whipping up sentiment and blackmailing the Appeal Court ahead of the AC‘s impending appeal. But we wish to state for the umpteenth time that orchestrated campaigns and propaganda do not win cases. Court cases are determined by the evidence adduced by parties to cases and not by noisemaking and publication of falsehood.”
The controversies surrounding the governorship poll started in 2007 after INEC‘s declaration of Oni as the winner. Fayemi had challenged Oni‘s victory but the tribunal dismissed the petition and upheld Oni‘s victory. Not satisfied with the verdict, the AC candidate headed for the Court of Appeal in Ilorin.
The court, which nullified Oni‘s victory, ordered a supplementary election in 63 wards of the state and Fayemi was leading with about 12,000 votes before April 25 when the supplementary poll was conducted. He maintained the lead until the last batch of result was turned in from Ido-Osi Local Government Area where the governor hails from. After the drama of resignation and absconding by the 74-year-old INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, the septuagenarian credited Oni with 111,140 votes to defeat the AC candidate who was said to have scored 107,011.
Fayemi returned to the tribunal, and, a year after when the last batch of the rerun poll was conducted in Oye Local Government, the tribunal gave its verdict. Dissatisfied with the verdict, Fayemi has now headed for the higher court to appeal the verdict. So far as both the appellants (Fayemi and AC) as well as the respondents (Oni and the PDP) prepare for another battle the people of the state are anxiously waiting to know what will be the outcome of the appeal.
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