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Regional News of Thursday, 29 December 2022

Source: www.premiumtimesng.com

Ekiti Tribunal upholds Governor Oyebanji’s election

The Election Petition Tribunal has upheld the election of Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State and his deputy, Monisade Afuye.

The tribunal, in its judgement on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, dismissed the petition of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate, Segun Oni.

In the judgement read by the Chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi and a member, Justice Sa’ad Zadawa, the panel resolved all issues in contention against Mr Oni and his party, SDP.

The Panel held that the petition filed by Mr Oni against the return of Messrs Oyebanji and Afuye, respectively, “failed woefully head or tail.”

Mr Oyebanji had polled 187,057 votes to defeat his two closest; rivals, Mr Oni and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Mr Oni of the SDP had 82,211 votes while the PDP was third with 67,457 votes.

But Mr Oni, on 7 July, filed a petition at the tribunal challenging the declaration of Mr Oyebanji by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the election.

In his petition, Mr Oni claimed that the election was characterised by irregularities.

He also argued that it was wrong for the APC caretaker committee headed by Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni to have supervised the primary election process that led to Mr Oyebanji’s emergence as the APC candidate.

More details of the tribunal judgement coming later…