The court of appeal will this Thursday determine whether or not former governor Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was right to have queried the decision of the national assembly election petition tribunal which dismissed his petition against the victory of Sen. Kola Balogun of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Recall that the APC had gone to the tribunal to challenge the victory of Balogun in 8 out of the 9 local government areas in Oyo South senatorial district. Balogun had polled 105,720 votes to defeat Ajimobi who garnered 92,218 votes. The tribunal, however, dismissed the petition on September 10, 2019. Not satisfied, the APC appeal to the judgment.
The three-man panel of the tribunal chaired by Justice Anthony Akpovi, with Justice Sambo Daka and Justice Chinyere Ani as members, had unanimously upheld Balogun’s victory.
The lead judgment, read by Akpovi, said that most of the witnesses called by the petitioner to tender the results of polling units were ward collation agents and not the proper persons to tender the results.
The tribunal chairman had said that the testimonies of the ward collation agents could not be accorded any probative value because they were not the makers of the documents tendered.
He said that the petitioner also based his testimonies on the card reader result without calling the maker to testify, while no witness was also called in regarding voters’ accreditation register.
Akpovi said that the malfunctioning of the card reader could not invalidate the voter’s register.
He said that most of the witnesses called by the petitioner were not relevant and that their testimonies were mere hearsay. Akpovi said that the petitioner failed to prove all the allegations in the petition beyond a reasonable doubt.
The tribunal chairman, therefore, nullified Ajimobi’s petition and upheld the election of Balogun, having scored the majority of lawful votes, and declared him the winner.
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