Ebun Francis| A Court of Appeal in Ibadan, on Monday, upheld the appeal filed by Adebayo Adelabu, the Oyo state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), against Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
By so doing, the appellate court dismissed the judgement of the lower tribunal which earlier in the year nullified the petition of the APC candidate.
While calling the judgement of the lower court ‘perverse’ and setting it aside, the court was, however, silent on the way forward apart from ruling that the status quo at the time of filing the petition by the APC candidate should remain.
According to the court in its lead judgement, the appellants, the APC and Adelabu, did not get fair hearing at the tribunal.
It went further to rule that, given Electoral Act only gives a grace of 180 days for a case to be heard at the election tribunal, the case has run out of time could not be sent back to it for review.
The pronouncement by the court has lead to confusion in the state with both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the opposition All Progressives Congress claiming victory.
Reacting to the judgement, the lead counsel to Makinde, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), said, ”the declaration of Makinde as governor “has not been affected in any way. The Court of Appeal in their wisdom said they did not agree with the lower tribunal. They did not also say that they did not agree with INEC. So, INEC’s declaration is sacrosanct and it remains until any other pronouncement from the court”.
“We have not seen the details of the judgment. We were all in court and you (journalists) saw that the details were not read to us. As far as we are concerned, there is no cause for alarm.”
“There is no implication on the return and declaration of Seyi Makinde as the governor of Oyo State.”
On his part, counsel to Adelabu and APC, Adeboye Shobanjo, said, “You listened to what my lord said about the evaluation of judgment of evidence that when there are pieces of evidence before the court, the evidence of all parties before the court should be evaluated. Judgment should not be based only on the evidence of a party in a case and if that was done during the trial or during the judgment, that is contrary to the provision of the constitution on fair hearing.
“Second, this court settled the issue of dumping of documents on election cases, and contrary to the decision of the tribunal that all the documents tendered by the appellants were dumped on the tribunal. The judgment made it known that the documents were not dumped on the tribunal.
“In totality, the appeal was allowed. But my lord said that because of effusion of time, that since the time for trial has lapsed at the tribunal, they cannot order for retrial of the case.
“But generally or totally, the appeal was allowed. It showed that the judgment of the tribunal occasioned a miscarriage of justice against the appellants.”
Meanwhile, Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, has called on his supporters across the country to remain calm, as he still remains in charge.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Monday evening, the governor accused the opposition of misleading the public.
Makinde said, “It is pre mature for anyone to wish that a landslide victory can just be upturned. Although, they may wish that such happens, but it won’t ever happen. The mandate was freely given to him by the good people of Oyo State.”
“There is really nothing to worry about because, all they, the opposition are planning is already in the public… the judiciary is credible and won’t allow itself to be used against the will of the Oyo State.
“I urge you all to go about your normal businesses, we won’t be distracted in our quest to make Oyo State, a model State where good governance and leadership will be the order of the day.”
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