Appeal court upholds Fayose’s election

Governor hails judgment  

THE Court of Appeal, Abuja Division yesterday appended it’s judicial seal on the victory of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State in the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

  However, the court dismissed the appeal lodged by the All Progressive Congress (APC), contesting the verdict of the Election Petition Tribunal.

  Fayose described the judgment as a triumph of the will of the people over political bitterness aided by selfish interests.

  Fayose, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, urged the APC and its candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to face the reality of their electoral loss.

  “What the Court of Appeal in Abuja did today further attested to the fact that the will of the people, clearly expressed, cannot be thwarted by a clique being propelled by political bitterness and selfish interests they want to promote.

  “In the history of elections in Nigeria, I stand to be corrected, the election that brought me to office ranked alongside the June 12, 1993 presidential poll in terms of fairness, credibility and so on.

  “Those who thought they could circumvent the process and the will of the people have been put to shame. I thank the judiciary for proving again that it is the hope of the common man. I hope that after suffering defeat in the 16 local governments, losing three nil at the tribunal and also losing woefully again at the Court of Appeal, the APC and Fayemi would give peace a chance,” he said.

  The tribunal had on December 19, 2014 upheld Fayose’s election.

  Dissatisfied, APC had besieged the appellate court to challenge the decision of the tribunal.

  In its appeal, APC submitted that the Tribunal erred when it dismissed the ground challenging the forgery of certificate by Fayose.

  Appellants also challenged the decision of the Tribunal which struck  out  Chief of Army Staff and Nigerian Army as parties in the petition.

  They also challenge the Tribunal ‘s decision which denied jurisdiction to pronounce whether the army has a role to play in an election or not.

  In a two hour judgement delivered by a full panel of the Court of Appeal headed by Justice Abdul Aboki, the court held that the appellants did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the certificate of the respondent issued by the Polytechnic Ibadan was forged.

  The court noted that the issuing institution which was the Polytechnic Ibadan had forwaded a letter stating that the certificate in contention was issued by it.

  The court further noted that the appellants failed to provide an evidence before the court to show that the certificate was forged.

  It was on that premise that the court  dismissed the ground of appeal.

  On the issue of striking out the names of Chief of Army Staff and Nigerian Army‎ from the petition by the Tribunal, the court held that the Tribunal was right as such office and establishment are not recognised under law to be involved in electoral process.

  The court noted that the struck out parties are not necessary parties and as such their non joinder in the tribunal will not in any way bring about an adverse effect on the appellant.

  It also held that the military as far as the election was concerned can be categorised as agents of INEC.

  The court however upheld the decision of the Tribunal, striking out the names ‎of the Chief of Army Staff and Nigerian Army as parties in the petition.

  The court also upheld the decision of the Tribunal which refused jurisdiction to determine whether the military has a role to play in an electoral process.

  The court however stated that by the provisions of the law, the military has no role to play in electoral process adding that whoever had deployed the military to Ekiti for the elections had breached the law.

  “We have looked carefully into this appeal, no merit in the appeal and it is hereby dismissed. The judgement of the Tribunal delivered on December 19, 2014 succeeds”, the court held.

  In the cross appeal, brought by Peoples Democratic Party PDP and Fayose on whether APC can file a petition before the Tribunal without its governorship candidate, the court held in the affirmative.

  Justice Aboki held that the candidate is not a necessary party in the petition on ground that it is the party that sponsors a candidate.

  Also on whether an impeachment can qualify as a ground for disqualification in an election, the court held that there is no way an impeachment can constitute a ground for disqualification.

  The tribunal in dismissing APC’s petition on December 19, 2013 held that the witnesses paraded by the petitioner were unable to provide concrete evidence to support the claims of corrupt practices at the polling units and that their testimonies did not support claims that the election did not comply substantially with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

  “The testimonies of these witnesses are unsatisfactory and their inability to give the names of the polling units as well as the names of their agents at those unnamed polling units shows that most of them that gave evidence of these alleged non compliance did not vote at the election as such their testimonies failed to support their claims. None of them gave evidence on the improper accreditation or manipulation of accreditation. 

  “The petitioner failed to substantiate the allegation of improper accreditation or non accreditation of voters”, it ruled.

  The panel also held that the failure of the petitioner to call witnesses from most of the polling units to prove the allegation of improper and or non accreditation of voters at the polling units damaged the substance of the petition.

  It also rejected claims by the APC that the election was systematically and scientifically conducted by the use of indelible photo chronic and vanishing inks that fades within minutes in such a way to favour the emergence of the PDP candidate at the election.

  The tribunal equally threw out the issue of Fayose’s disqualification saying it does not have jurisdiction over a pre election matter because the issue of the disqualification was already before an Ekiti State High Court which APC was aware of.

  The tribunal similarly threw out two other grounds of the petition that bothers on display of voters register and the contravention of the code of conduct by Fayose, saying they are pre-election issues.

  The tribunal also threw out substantial paragraphs of the petition on the ground that they were made up of imprecise statements like “officers and men of the armed forces”, “agents of the PDP”, “harassment of the supporters of the petitioners”, “arresting of key supporters and chieftains of the petitioner” which had no names, descriptions or proper identifications of those persons who the petitioners are referring.

  The tribunal noted that the affected paragraphs are nebulous, speculative, not clear and confusing, and pointed out that the petitioners failed to provide the names of the polling units, where such harassment and intimidation of their supporters took place.