Osun Tribunal Verdict: Rep Salam Urges Residents To Remain Confident In The Ability Of Appellate Court

The lawmaker representing Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore, Ejigbo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Bamidele Salam, has described the majority judgement of the Osun State election petition tribunal as completely strange and a total deviation from established principles of electoral jurisprudence in Nigeria.

Salam, in a statement on Saturday, said, “I have read this judgement and the dissenting one with the eyes of a lawyer. The judgement is totally against the weight of evidence and facts presented in open court. It is also a clear and unfortunate departure from many decisions of superior courts of record. To say the least, this judgement mocks both the law and the facts of the case.

“The judgement strangely did a lot of cherry picking of relevant facts and totally ignored rules of evidence especially on what the courts do when there are conflicting secondary documentary evidence in court. With due respect to My Lords, the judgement is an attempt to put the burden of proof of facts alleged by the petitioner on the respondents, which is runs contrary to law and our sense of justice.”

The lawmaker decried attempts by the election petition tribunal to reverse the gains made with the painstaking efforts of members of the National Assembly to strengthen the electoral process with the approval of use of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) in support of other paper documentations in conducting elections in Nigeria.

“What the tribunal had done is a dangerous ambush of the progress so far made with the Independent National Electoral Commission to give Nigerians free and fair election and Nigerians must rise against the surreptitious landmine being laid with the tribunal judgement in Osun,” Salam added.

He, therefore, urged the people of Osun State to remain confident in the ability of the appellate court “to correct the wrongs of the tribunal and restore the mandate of the electorate given to Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke in the July 16th 2022 election.”