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Nigeria: Tribunal Upholds Governor Saraki's Election
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Vanguard (Lagos)
17 July 2008
Posted to the web 17 July 2008
Demola Akinyemi
THE Kwara State Election petition Tribunal sitting in Ilorin yesterday upheld the election of the governor of the state, Dr Bukola Saraki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the last governorship election held in the state.
Governor Bukola Saraki, in a reaction moments later described the verdict both as an act of God and a demonstration of the strength of the nation's unfolding democracy commending his opponents who had sought to cancel his election for pursuing their agenda through lawful means.
The governor had urged the duo of Mr Gbenga Olawepo and Chief Theophilus Bamigboye to bury their hatchets and join hands with him in his untiring efforts to rebuild the state and take it to a greater height.
Though Mr Gbenga Olawepo was not present at the tribunal Chief Theophilus Bamigboye in his own reaction appealed for calm among his supporters adding that "the struggle continues, we will keep on till we secure victory".
The five-man panel, led by Justice Muhammad Tukur Muazu Aliyu which has other members of the panel namely Justice Aminu Sabo Ringin, Justice Masud Akintunde Akinfemi Abass and Justice Lilian Abai dismissed allegations by both the Democratic Peoples party (DPP) and Accord Party.
The tribunal disagreed that the election was soiled by widespread malpractices, corruption, violence, intimidation of opposition party members as well as the alleged exclusion of both the photograph and logo of the Accord Party from the ballot papers used for the election, in violation of the Electoral Act 2006.
Justice Muazu Aliyu in dismissing the petition by the DPP and its candidate, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo, noted that contrary to the petitioner's desire, his averments were "generic, vague, and untenable" saying, "what the petitioner did was to plead malpractices generally without giving specific instances, what we have in this case are bundles of documents without facts."
The panel further held that the petitioner did not prove any case of malpractices as contained in his claims and that it could not successfully do so for Offa, the only local government it pointed at to prove the claim and so the judge pronounced the petition a failure and struck it our accordingly.
With respect to Accord Party of which Chief Theophilus Bamigboye was the governorship candidate, the tribunal dismissed one of the grounds for the petition that the poll was characterized by malpractices pointing out that since the petitioner had alleged exclusion from the election, he could not again go to plead malpractices.
The tribunal on the allegations of exclusion went to a great length to show that contrary to the pleadings of the petitioner, there was actually the party" logo on the ballot papers used for the election and that the petitioner"s name was actually on the same ballot paper even though his photograph was not.
The absence of the photograph, the tribunal held, could not still uphold the allegations of the petitioner as has been decided by the Court of Appeal in the case of Agbaje Vs Fashola. Since it had also held that it was not in position to establish the level of literacy among Kwara voters as one of the platforms by the petitioner to attack the election the tribunal thus dismissed the petition in its entirety.
Meanwhile, oppositions in the state under the aegis of All parties Congress (APC) said it had set up a seven-man panel to investigate proceedings of the tribunal to find out its balance and sincerity in arriving at its decisions on matters brought before it under the 2007 elections.
According to the statement , signed by Elder Kuti Kayode on behalf of the group "the APC has set up a seven-man panel to investigate the proceedings of the Kwara State Election Petition Tribunal on Kwara state House of Assembly and Governorship Election of April 2007."'
"The aim of the committee is to use the venue to check and balance the sincerity or otherwise of he Nigerians judiciary, the institution which the people looked up to as the last hope of the common man.
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The Congress asserts that if after the completion of the committee"s investigation the tribunal is found soiled by corrupt practices, the Congress will surely sue them to court." added the statement
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