Oyo Election Tribunal Dismisses NNPP’s Petition, Awards N500,000 Cost In Favour Of Adeyemi, APC

The National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting at Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State capital, yesterday dismissed the petition filed by Oyekalu Rasheed Oyegbami of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its House of Representatives candidate (Akeem Adeniyi Adeyemi), describing it as lacking in merit.

The three- man Tribunal led by Justice Elias Abua equally awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the 2nd and third respondents. The petitioner challenged the victory of Prince Adeyemi (a.k.a. Skimeh) who is representing the Afijio, Oyo East and Oyo West federal constituency of Oyo State.

The petitioners had claimed that the party’s logo and symbol of a basket filled with fruits were excluded from the ballot paper printed for the election by the INEC, and by so doing, many of the voters could not identify the logo, thereby denying many of them the opportunity to vote. The Tribunal was therefore urged to declare the election as invalid and order a fresh election in the constituency for non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022.

The petitioners were represented by J.D. Olaniyan, and E. O. Ajala-Adeoye; the 1st Respondent (INEC) was represented by O. Aken Ova, while the 3rd Respondent was represented by Adeboye Sobanjo who led Prof.Y.D.U. Ambali and Oluwatomiwa Fadeyi.

The respondents had in their arguments however claimed that the petitioners fully participated in the electoral processes and even recorded 1,588 votes in the February 25, 2023 election while the respondent scored 84,822 votes. In essence, they could not claim unlawful exclusion.

The tribunal noted that the complaints upon which the petition was filed was that of pre-election matter and that the complaints ought to have been filed at a Federal High Court, which they failed to do before the election took place.

Regarding the logo and symbol alleged not embossed on the ballot paper, the tribunal said that “the power to design and format the symbol and logo of political parties and other materials rests on the 1st Respondent (INEC)”.

The tribunal therefore ordered that: “It is hereby ordered that the petition is dismissed for lacking in merit and a sum of N500,000 is hereby awarded as cost against the petitioners, in favour of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents”.