Nigeria Content Online

The politics of the
Southwest took another interesting turn at the weekend as an Appeals
Court voided Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s three years and six months reign as
governor of Osun State. The court ruled that the 2007 election was
actually won by the candidate of the Action Congress (AC) candidate in
the said election, Rauf Aregbesola, who was sworn in on Saturday as the
governor of the state.

Prior to the
ruling, however, about 15 members of the PDP had shown interest in the
governorship race and obtained the N3 million intention of interest
form sold by the party secretariat. The party had been consumed by the
fight over which of these aspirants would get the ticket to replace Mr
Oyinlola, until the whole house of cards came tumbling down.

The court ruling
means there would not be any governorship election in Osun State next
year, as Mr Aregbesola will serve out his four years. The state thus
joins others such as Ondo, Edo,

Ekiti and Anambra where there would be no governorship election in 2011.

The judgement also increases the number of states lost by the PDP to the opposition ACN to three.

Delivering its
judgement in Ibadan on Friday, the five-member panel led by Clara
Ogunbiyi said the Election Petition Tribunal which heard the petition
brought by Aregbesola erred by upholding the declaration of Mr Oyinlola
by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner
of the election.

For the ACN’s
candidate, Friday’s judgment was a result of resilience and tenacity.
Having failed before the initial tribunal, headed by Thomas Naron, the
petitioner went to the Court of Appeal where a retrial of the case was
ordered on the ground that the panel failed to admit useful evidences
that could help in proper discharge of the matter.

Mr Aregbesola also suffered another loss when the matter was retried by the second tribunal, headed by Garba Alli.

The tribunal ruled
that he failed to prove his allegations of over-voting, ballot stuffing
and other electoral malpractices beyond reasonable doubt.

But succor came his
way last Friday, when all his 26 grounds of appeal, collapsed into
five, sailed through before the Appeal panel.

Delivering her lead
judgement, Mrs. Ogunbiyi posited that the petitioner had provided
enough grounds for the tribunal to rule in his favour, having presented
evidences of discrepancies in the strength of registered voters and the
number of votes recorded for the election.

Benefit of tenacity

Mr Aregbesola was
contesting the votes in 10 out of the 30 local government councils of
the state, where he alleged that there were irregularities and
non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2006.

In the 4-hour 37-
minutes judgment, Mrs Ogunbiyi, chided the lower tribunal for
validating the election of Oyinlola, despite the barrage of substantial
evidence and exhibits presented by Aregbesola’s counsel, saying that
its failure to consider the evidences amounted to a display of
jaundiced view of the whole matter. The other justices,

M. L. Garba, P.A. Galinge, C. C Nweze and A. Jauro also took turns to align with her.

In declaring
Aregbesola, the court said “An order is hereby given that the votes in
the 10 local governments are voided and the election of Olagunsoye
Oyinlola is hereby nullified”. The presiding Justice continued by
saying “in considering the reliefs sought, it is my opinion that the
2007 election in Osun state cannot be said to have complied with the
Electoral Act. From the above, a candidate can only be declared winner
if he polls the majority lawful votes. Having voided elections in the
ten local governments, there is no doubt that the first appellant
(Aregbesola) won the elections and has satisfied the requirements of
the Electoral Act. Olagunsoye Oyinlola,

who was returned as
governor of Osun state, was not validly elected as he did not score the
highest number of votes as required. The first appellant having been
shown to have won the highest votes is hereby declared as the governor
of Osun state in the 2007 election.”

The controversial
local governments are: Atakumosa, Ayedade, Boluwaduro, Boripe Ife
Central, Ife East, Ife South, Ifedayo, Isokan and Odo Otin.