The Supreme Court has upheld the victory of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, in the 2019 gubernatorial election.
The apex court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Ukaego Mary Peter-Odili, declared that the appeal court had earlier carried out miscarriage of justice in its ruling on the case earlier brought before it.
With the judgement, the election battle between Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Adebayo Adelabu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been laid to rest.
Earlier, The Herald reported that the Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Ibadan upheld the election victory of Governor Seyi Makinde in the Oyo state March 9, gubernatorial poll.
The petition filed by the All Progressives Congress and their Governorship candidate, Bayo Adelabu was dismissed by the Head of Tribunal, Justice Sirajo Muhammed on the account of lack of proof to substantiate the allegations of over-voting, corrupt practices, substantial non-compliance with the electoral act 2010 leveled against Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The Justice ruled that the Petitioners’ witnesses gave reports based on hearsay and not direct eyewitnesses accounts. Justice Sirajo also ruled that the Petitioner was unsuccessful to tender voters register, relate statement of results to a specific unit or constituency to indeed indicate that there was over-voting and that if proved, would substantially affect result of the election
The Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal in its verdict, ruled out the allegations of anomalies, unaccounted ballot papers or wrongful collation of results, insisting that no law compelled an accredited voter to vote.