The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Ibadan dismissed the petition submitted by the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) against Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State’s March 18 victory.
APM disputed INEC’s declaration of Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner after 563,756 votes.
INEC and the PDP are the other parties involved in the case.
The tribunal dismissed the appeal and granted N1 million in costs to Makinde and the PDP against APM in a unanimous judgement read by its Chairman, Justice Ejiron Emudainohwo.
According to Emudainohwo, the petition is frivolous.
”It is scandalous for the application for the withdrawal of the petition to be filed 46 days after the party was aware their candidate was not interested in it.”
She stated that the petitioner should be charged with costs for wasting the respondents’ time and resources in completing out their processes, as well as the tribunal’s time.
According to Emudainohwo, forcing the petitioner to pay the expense will serve as a deterrence.
Earlier, APM’s attorney, Mr. Henry Bello, informed the tribunal that he had submitted an application to withdraw the petition against Makinde.
Bello claimed that the petition’s intended beneficiary, Mr. Adeniran Oluwaseyi, had lost faith in the petition and had instead congratulated Makinde.
He asked the court to dismiss the petition because the petitioner (the party) has no one to fill the job even if their petition is upheld.
Bello stated that the case was filed because the party’s votes were not registered in many polling units during the March 18 governorship election in the state.
He urged the court not to impose any costs on the petitioner because they had devoted resources to filing and prosecuting the lawsuit.
“Withdrawing the petition is not because the petitioner is not willing to prosecute the matter, but it is as a result of the attitude of the party’s candidate who is not a party in the matter.”
Bello added that the petitioner and its candidate’s behaviour was deserving of sympathy and admiration, and he urged the panel not to impose any costs against the petitioner.
INEC lawyer, Mr. Kizito Duru, responded that he was not objected to the petition’s withdrawal and would not seek expenses.
In his response, PDP lawyer, Mr. Isiaka Olagunju, stated that he was not opposed to the petition’s withdrawal and urged the tribunal to give the petitioner N2 million in costs.
Olagunju stated that his client was entitled to the cost because issues had been joined, pleadings had been filed, pre-hearing had been done, and they intended to begin hearing when they received the withdrawal motion.
He requested the tribunal to levy costs against the petitioner for wasting both the tribunal’s and the respondents’ time.
Mr. Kunle Kalejaye, Makinde’s counsel, said he received the withdrawal motion on the day the case was scheduled for hearing, but he was not opposed to it.
According to Kalejaye, the petitioner, who received 303 votes in the election against his client, who received 563,756 votes, should not have filed the petition.
He requested the tribunal to dismiss the plea and impose a N10 million fine on the petitioner as a deterrence to others.
NAN
