The legal battle over the results of the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State won by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu will begin tomorrow at the Governorships Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure, the capital .
The candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party , PDP, Eyitayo Jegede had filed a petitioned against Akeredolu, who was declared winner of the October 10, 2020 Election by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at the tribunal headed by Justice Umar Abubakar.
Justice Abubakar would lead two other judges to listen to the petition filed by Jegede as from tomorrow, Immaculate Conception .
Election Tribunals are established pursuant to section 285 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as Amended) and section 133 of the Electoral Act 2011 (as Amended) to deal with disputes arising from Elections.
Jegede through his lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN had dragged the All Progressives Congress, APC and Governor Akeredolu before the tribunal to account alleged infractions against the laws of the land.
One of the grounds of the petition is that Akeredolu wasn’t validly nominated by his party APC. By the provisions of section 183 of the 1999 Constitution, a serving Governor of a State (in this case, Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni) cannot function the National Chairman of APC at an equivalent time to nominate Akeredolu as candidate of their party for the Ondo Elections. Section 183 states “The Governor shall not, during the amount when he holds office, hold the other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever”.
Read also: Bill to establish Aerospace varsity in Ondo passes second reading in Senate
Jegede is saying that “Akeredolu wasn’t validly nominated and intrinsically APC had no candidate for the Ondo Election.
He added that “Article 17 section iv of the APC Constitution also provides that, any official of the party cannot simultaneously occupy the other executive office in government.
” It states further that “No officer in any organ of the party shall hold executive position office in government concurrently”. Again Buni ran foul of this provision.
Jegede also posited that ” the Election was marred with violence in some Local Governments also as over voting in other areas.
Follow us on Twitter: @oyogist
