Wednesday 27 May 2015

Supreme Court upholds Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola's election

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party's governorship candidate in Osun State, Iyiola Omisore, challenging the Court of Appeal’s judgment which affirmed Rauf Aregbesola’s election victory in Osun.

Aregbesola, the candidate of the All Peoples Conress in the election held on August 9, 2014, was declared the winner.

Omisore was however dissatisfied and lodged a petition at the Election Petition Tribunal, and lost.



He appealed against the tribunal’s judgement at the Appeal Court but lost again as the court upheld the tribunal verdict.

Not satisfied, Omisore went to the Supreme Court to set aside the Appeal Court’s judgement, claiming that there was miscarriage of justice in the process.

However, the apex court’s panel of seven justices, in its judgement read by Justice Chima Nweze, held that Omisore’s appeal lacked merit and dismissed it entirely.

In the unanimous judgment, the court also upheld the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, and the Osun Election Petition Tribunal, which had earlier affirmed Aregbesola’s election

Affirming the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal, the panel held‎: “There being no merit in the appeal, it is hereby ordered that the main appeal and cross-appeal are dismissed entirely and parties are to bear their own costs."

The court also held that the appellant failed to prove the case of substantial election malpractice against the respondent, saying that the appellant’s arguments in that regard were mere speculations.

It said that the testimonies of the appellant’s witnesses were riddled with mistakes, errors and gaps, which made them untenable and unreliable.

Credit: Tobi Soniyi/ThisDay

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