The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital has upheld the election victory of Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023.
The tribunal also strucked out the petition of Ladi Adebutu, the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for being “incompetent, defective, and lacking in merit”.
“I uphold the election of Dapo Abiodun as the duly elected governor of Ogun State in the March 18 election”, the tribunal ruled.
Abiodun had secured victory with 276,298 votes, with Ladi Adebutu amassing 262,388 votes, and Biyi Otegbeye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) trailing a distant third with 94,754 votes, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Adebutu and the PDP had approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Abiodun as the winner of the governorship election, saying that the election was marred with corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The petition, marked EPT/OG/GOV/03/2023, accused INEC of non-compliance with the Electoral Act and cited corrupt practices during the election. They also claimed that election processes were disrupted by thugs in more than 99 polling units, which disenfranchised over 40,000 voters.
Adebutu sought a court order declaring him as the winner and urged the court to mandate INEC to conduct a fresh election in 99 polling units spanning 41 wards across 16 local government areas of the state, where elections were either not held or were canceled due to disruptions and over-voting.
The judges however ruled that the petitioners failed to substantiate allegations of non-compliance, overvoting, voter disenfranchisement, the non-qualification of the second respondent, and corrupt practices during the election beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judges, in delivering the lead judgment, noted that the forensic experts lacked adequate qualifications, and their reports could not be relied upon.
The tribunal also found no direct evidence of voter disenfranchisement during the election.
Regarding the alleged non-qualification of Abiodun due to criminal records, the tribunal stated that the petitioners failed to demonstrate Abiodun had been tried, arraigned, and convicted in the US.
“The petitioners have not successfully proven the allegation of non-compliance with the electoral act and have not discharged the burden of proof.
“Although cash cards were produced by the 2nd Petitioner, those cards were funded on 16 and 17 March 2023 (eve of the elections) and those cards somehow found their way to some polling units on Election Day; vote-buying must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, a threshold which Respondents failed to meet”, the judges added.
