Former Governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni has rejected the ruling of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed Governor Biodun Oyebanji as the winner of the last governorship election held in the state.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Oyebanji, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election June 18, 2022, governorship election in Ekiti, but Oni, Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate rejected the result and challenged the election outcome before the tribunal.
Oni’s petition at the tribunal hinged on alleged election rigging by voter inducement and bypass of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) at some polling stations; the authenticity of the WAEC certificate presented by the APC Deputy governorship candidate, Monisade Afuye among other grounds.
However, in a unanimous ruling read by its Chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, on Thursday dismissed Oni’s petition for lack of merit and failure to buttress allegations with evidence.
The tribunal claimed that Oni failed to prove his case beyond all the reasonable doubts that the election was characterised by alleged vote-buying electoral malpractice.
But in a swift reaction, Oni through his counsel, Owoseni Ajayi, said he would seek justice at the Appeal Court to reclaim his stolen mandate.
The former governor asserted that nothing would prevent the party from appealing the ruling based on the strength of its case, asking Oyebanji and the APC to rejoice minimally.
He said: “We are definitely going to file an appeal against the judgment. You should know that we have three legs of court, this is the first, we have the Court of Appeal, and we also have the Supreme Court.
“We are definitely going to appeal and superior courts will touch the areas where the tribunal deliberately left unattended to. That is our position and that is our comment.
These people should rejoice minimally because you will realise that most of the petitions where governors were removed were done by the Supreme Court. In the case of Zamfara State, the APC governor won in the lower court and won in the court of appeal, but the Supreme Court removed him.
In the case of Bayelsa State, they won at the lower court, they won at the court of appeal, Supreme Court dethroned them. Even in the case of Wike, it was the Supreme court that enthroned him, so, I will advise them to minimally rejoice over this.”
