Court dismisses Banky W, Obanikoro’s petition, declares Thaddeus Attah, winner of Eti-Osa poll

The appellate court has ruled against the judgment of the election petition tribunal that ordered the re-rum of the Eti-Osa federal constituency election.

The judgement was issued on Thursday, November 9, at the appeal court at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos state.

As reported by BBC pidgin, the case is between Bankole Wellington (Banky W) of the Peoples Democratic Party, Babajide Obanikoro of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Thaddeus Attah of the Labour Party (LP).

In its ruling, the appellate court affirmed LP's Thaddeus Attah as the winner of the Eti-Osa Federal Constituency seat for the House of Representatives. Both Thaddeus and Bank W were a no-show in court.

The presiding judge ruled that the election petition tribunal was wrong to have ordered a re-run because the tendered evidence did not warrant such a ruling.

According to the judge, some of the witnesses presented by the petitioners were not in the affected polling units.

He also dismissed the petition that the elections were not held in some polling units, noting that the petitioners needed to prove that it affected the election outcome.

Obanikoro concedes defeat, congratulates Attah

After the ruling, the APC candidate, Obanikoro, stated that the judge did not look into the case thoroughly as expected.

He said: "Most of the things the judge said were contrary to what happened at the lower court. The documents that we tendered were from INEC. So, why would the court say that it is not genuine?

"The judge was lazy to go through all the documents that were presented to him and he took the easy way out. Let the NBA review all these kinds of cases because it is painful that the judge did not look at the case as he was supposed to."

Meanwhile, Obanikoro took to his official X handle to congratulate Attah on his victory at the appellate court.

He wrote: "I would like to congratulate Representative Jude Thaddeus Attah on his victory at the appeal court today.

"Let's throw our support for him so that he would give us a good representation for the next four years in Eti-Osa."