After a six hours Tribunal Judgment, The Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Ibadan, has upheld the election victory of Governor Seyi Makinde in the Oyo state March 9, Gubernatorial poll
The petition filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC and their Governorship candidate, Bayo Adelabu has been 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.
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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.
While taking into consideration that the Petitioner presented 37 Polling units agents out of 1,426 polling units challenged, Sirajo maintained that 1,389 units were therefore considered abandoned.
The Ibadan-sitting GovernorshipPetitions Tribunal, however, invalidated the result of unit 003, ward 09, Ido Local Government for reason of Returning Officer who tendered two different results