Admin l Tuesday, September 10, 2019
IKEJA, Nigeria – Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola was today affirmed as winner of the Lagos West Senatorial District in the 2019 general election. He was affirmed by the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja.
Delivering judgment, the 3-member tribunal led by Justice Kunaza Hamidu, held that the petition filed by Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the election of Adeola of the All Progressive Congress(APC) failed to establish any prima facie case against him.
“The petition lacked merit and is hereby dismissed.
The declaration of Sen. Solomon Adeola Olamilekan by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) as winner of Feb. 23 National Assembly election is hereby affirmed,” the tribunal declared.
Rhodes-Vivour had dragged Adeola and INEC before the Tribunal, challenging the result of the Lagos West Senatorial District election over alleged irregularities.
Respondents in the case are the APC and INEC. Rhodes-Vivour had claimed that Adeola was not entitled to be returned as duly elected candidate as the election was marred by irregularities, malpractices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
That INEC wrongly declared Adeola winner of the polls with 328,817 votes, while he was said to have scored 243,516 votes.
He claimed that INEC ought to have declared him winner of the election instead of Adeola, claiming that he scored the highest lawful votes cast at the election.
In a petition filed before the tribunal, Rhodes-Vivour’s counsel, Francis Akintola, alleged that the results declared by INEC was fraught with vote-buying, violence, over-voting, inducement of voters with monetary and material gains, coercion of opponents, campaigning and lobbying of voters, on the day of election.
Other irregularities he stated in his petition, included: non-accreditation and improper accreditation of voters by INEC officials, intimidation and arrest of his supporters and poll agents, as well as instigation of electoral violence by agents of first respondent.
Rhodes-Vivour also alleged that apart from the listed irregularities, there were irreconcilable entries in the result declared and the number of votes recorded in favour of Adeola by INEC.
“The final result was signed only by the agent of APC and the Senatorial INEC Returning officer in an unknown location.” he added.
But in their defence, Adeola, APC and INEC through their counsel, E. Akudo and Nojim Tairu, denied all allegations contained in the petition describing them as unfounded fabrications.
They insisted that Adeola scored the highest lawful votes cast at the election and urged the tribunal to dismiss Rhodes-Vivour’s petition with substantial costs.
During trial, Ashade filed two applications on behalf of Akudo and APC while Tairu filed one application for INEC in which they objected to certain paragraphs in the petition and urged the tribunal to strike them out as they were vague and lacked substance.
The tribunal granted the prayer of the respondents and struck out the ‘offensive’ paragraph.
The tribunal held that the petitioner failed to substantiate and give particulars of all allegations raised against the election of Adeola
The tribunal declared that the national assembly elections from which Adeola emerged winner was held in accordance with the electoral act and other relevant laws. (NAN)
