The National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, has announced the Speaker of State House Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, winner of the Ifo Constituency I election.
The Ifo Constituency I election was ruled inconclusive on March 18, but a rerun was held on April 15, following which Oluomo was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The three-member panel on Monday, in a unanimous decision dismissed the petition filed by Yusuf Ogundele , the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 18 election.
Ogundele, in his request for the tribunal to declare him winner of the state assembly constituency, said that the Speaker had not been legitimately elected by the majority of votes.
He added that Oluomo was not duly elected by the majority of the valid vote cast and that the election was not in compliance with the provisions of the electoral Act 2022.
In a lead judgement, Justice Samuel Ayiwulu, the chairman of the tribunal, declared that the Petitioners had not produced any eyewitnesses to support their claims of improper or non-accreditation, excessive voting, vote inflation, or improper accounting of electoral materials used in the elections.
The two witnesses brought before the tribunal by PDP, according to Ayiwulu and two other panel members, were incompetent and had no probative value.
The panel determined that none of the witnesses could have supported the petition because they were neither election experts nor eyewitnesses from the polling units.
As a result, the tribunal dismissed the petition for lack of merit and upheld Oluomo of the APC as the legitimately elected member representing Ifo 1 Constituency in Ogun State.
