The All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Senator Dayo Adeyeye (Ekiti South) has filed an appeal against the declaration of Senator Biodun Olujimi as the winner of the last senatorial election.
Adeyeye filed a 19-ground appeal against the judgment of the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which nullified his victory and declared Olujimi winner of poll held on 23rd February, 2019.
The Senator through his team of lawyers led by Dayo Akinlaja (SAN), wants the Court of Appeal to nullify the judgement of the tribunal and declare him duly elected.
In the Notice of Appeal filed Monday at the Ado-Ekiti Division of the Court of Appeal, the chairman of Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs is seeking two reliefs to upturn Olujimi’s victory at the tribunal.
Adeyeye prayed the court to “set aside the declaration and return of Olujimi.”
He wants the higher court to affirm his declaration and return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the senatorial poll held in the district on February 23.
Respondents in the appeal are: Olujimi (1st), PDP (2nd), INEC (3rd) and APC (4th) as the appellant is challenging the whole decision of the tribunal.
The three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice D.D. Adeck, in a judgment delivered on 10th September, 2019, ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return given to Adeyeye and issue a fresh one to Olujimi.
The panel upheld Olujimi’s averments that there was no proper accreditation, there was no proper account of ballots and that the number of votes or ballots recorded is more or less than the number of accredited voters, among others.
After the Tribunal deducted votes from what the two parties scored at the election, PDP was left with 54,894 and APC was credited with 52,243.
Adeyeye in his appeal averred that the tribunal’s verdict was a miscarriage of justice complaining that votes cast for his party (APC) were wrongfully nullified by the panel to arrive at its conclusion.
