Election in Ekiti: The tribunal adjourns pending the outcome of Oni’s petition against Oyebanji

The case filed by Chief Segun Oni, the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate for governor, challenging Biodun Oyebanji’s victory in the state’s most recent election on June 18, has been postponed by the Election Petition Tribunal until a date that would be informed to the parties.

After all parties before the jury adopted their final written addresses at the sitting conducted inside a packed courtroom on Wednesday in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, the chairman of the three-member panel hearing the case, reserved judgment for a later date.

In a written statement provided to the tribunal, the petitioner’s attorney, Owoseni Ajayi, claimed that the third respondent, Yobe State Governor Mai Mala-Buni, who signed Oyebanji’s nomination form and oversaw the APC governorship primary, had violated section 183 of the 1999 Constitution by agreeing to serve as the APC National Caretaker Chairman.
Ajayi claims that Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution made it clear that a governor in office could not hold another executive job at the same time.

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According to Section 136 of the Electoral Act, “the burden of proof was on Mrs. Afuye to defend herself of the allegation and since she refused to come to the tribunal to clear herself of the allegation, her quietness and refusal to defend herself of the allegation, “Ajayi told the tribunal regarding the petitioner’s claim that the deputy governor, Mrs. Monisade Afuye, presented an alleged fake school certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission

In order to win the governorship, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) filed a petition, which Governor Oyebanji, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) requested the tribunal to reject.

Oyebanji argued that Oni and his party, the SDP, had horribly failed to meet their burden of proof in order to persuade the Tribunal that the election had not been conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act and the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as amended.

Through their attorney, Professor Kayode Olatoke SAN, Oyebanji and Afuye (the first and fifth respondents) informed the tribunal that their written address was dated October 29, filed on October 30, and adopted before the tribunal as proof that his clients’ election should be upheld.