PDP, APC clash in court over Ajeromi- Ifelodun reps election
We won – PDP, No, you lost at re-run – APC
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Followers of the Peoples of Democratic Party(PDP) and those of the All Progressive Congress(APC) were drawn into a verbal clash on Tuesday at the ongoing Election Tribunal in Lagos.
So, far, 11 witnesses, have told the election tribunal sitting at Ikeja, Lagos, that there was no need for the April 27 re-run since the February 23 election which produced Hon. Rita Orji as the winner was peaceful.
The petitioners are contending before the tribunal, chaired by Kunaza N. Hamidu, that INEC has no legal right to cancel an election, which results have been announced, and that only the courts have the right to cancel results already announced by the returning officer.
They insist that the alleged re-run election on April 27 was marred by massive electoral malpractices, including threat to voters and agents of other political parties, especially PDP agents, supporters and non- indigenes.
“I was told that if I came closer, they will kill me; that this is not our land. And when I called the attention of the police officer attached to my polling unit, he was threatened that his uniform could be removed if he intervened” one of the witnesses told the tribunal.
Hon. Orji, who represented Ajeromi-Ifelodun Federal Constituency of Lagos State at the 8th National Assembly and PDP are the petitioners while Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Hon. Kolawole Taiwo are the respondents.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Pedro Lawan, who represented Taiwo, explained that part of the grounds for the respondents defence are that there was no proper election on February 23 due to logistic problems encountered by the election umpire, like late arrival of election materials and non emergence of clear winner, due to the insignificant margin.
He, however, stated that unlike the February 23 election, there were sufficient materials, manpower, security officials at the April 27 re-run election, in which APC candidate emerged winner, looking at the number of registered voters and actual voting at both elections.
He said while any aggrieved party has right to approach the court, there was ordinarily no need for the petition because the petitioners admitted in their evidence that there was no results in at least 19 polling units and no report of violence was made at the police.
Earlier, INEC had declared the February 23 House of Representatives election in the constituency, inconclusive, giving over-voting, non-compliance with the usage of smart card readers and violence as reasons.
Based on that ground, the Federal High Court, Abuja presided over by Justice Bello Kawu ordered the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to declare collated results of Ajeromi-Ifelodun Constituency as well as pay N250, 000 to Orji. INEC declared the results but did not pronounce any winner.
Rather, the INEC later conducted supplementary election in 71 polling units across eight wards and declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Mr Kolawole Taiwo, winner of Ajeromi-Ifelodun Federal Constituency of Lagos State for the House of Representatives seat. The supplementary election is what the witnesses said was marred by violence and malpractices.
Prof. Olusoji Ilori, the Returning Officer for the elections, announced that Taiwo polled a total of 36,115 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mrs Rita Orji, who got 32,557 votes.
Ilori added that Mr Matin Iwonlaye of Accord Party had 587 votes, Mr Jimoh Rasheed of PPN got 206 votes, Mr David Kola of AD polled 158 votes, Mr Michael Ogoeke of APP polled 149 votes while Ms Julie King of APDA polled 112 votes.
According to him, Mr Adebayo Adegbenro of ADC scored 107 votes, Mr Kennedy Nzemiro of PPC had 90 votes, Mr Morenikeji Oluwole of MPN had 39 votes, Mr Jacob Ogundiran of DPC scored 17 votes while Ms Victoria Oladipupo of DA, polled 06 votes.
