The shadow of the Ekiti Governorship election continues to loom large as the results are being challenged by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Prof. Olusola Kolapo who lost the election.
The PDP candidate had prayed the governorship election tribunal to recount the ballot papers used in the July 14 Ekiti Guber poll but the application was rejected by the tribunal.
The respondents in the matter are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate Dr Kayode Fayemi, whom INEC declared as the winner of the Ekiti governorship election.
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While ruling on the application, the Chairman of the three-member tribunal, Justice Bolaji Belgore, declared that the application lacked merit.
Justice Belgore further noted that Ekiti had 177 Wards with 2,197 polling units in 16 local government areas but the petitioners only complained of 325 polling units in their petition before the tribunal.
The tribunal chairman further pointed out that PDP and its candidate did not complain about all the 2,197 polling units in Ekiti state.
“To pray for recount in all wards and polling units across the state is to make firm nonsense of the petitioners’ pleading,” Justice Belgore said.
He further explained his position on the matter, stating that pleadings are written statements of parties in a procedure wherein they clearly state the materials, including documents they will rely on in the proceeding and as such the tribunal could only admit where it was supported by pleading.
He also stated that what the petitioners wanted could not be situated in their pleading before the tribunal because from the evidence presented so far, ordering a recount would have no basis in the proceedings of the tribunal.
Justice Belogore then went ahead to accuse the PDP and its candidate of trying to spring a surprise on the respondents knowing full well that they would not be able to respond to it as the period allocated for submissions of pleading had closed.
He further stated that the tribunal was in agreement with the submission of the counsel for Fayemi, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) that the PDP and its candidate were fishing for evidence under the guise of recounting the ballot.
The relief had sought for the recounting of the ballot papers to be done in the presence of two representatives of the parties in the case, secretary of the tribunal as well as security operatives. On this the tribunal held that involving its secretary would amount to the secretary giving evidence for the petitioners.
“The secretary of the tribunal cannot be a party to do what the application wanted,”
The Chairman of the election tribunal subsequently declared;
“We hereby rule that the application is lacking in merit.”