As the people of Osun State and Nigerians await the verdict of the Appeal Court judgment on the electoral battle between Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and Mr. Rauf Aregbesola of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), RAZAQ BAMIDELE chronicles the events that led to the fourth legal journey that is about to finally put the whole issue to rest.
Monday, November 22, 2010
•Oyinlola
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Genesis of the battle
On April 14, 2007, the governorship election took place in Osun State.
The result of the election, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was in favour of Prince Oyinlola.
The legal battles
Unsatisfied by the Prof. Maurice Iwu-led INEC declaration, Mr. Aregbesola cried foul. He headed for the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, Osun State capital under the headship of Justice Thomas Damar Naron. Other judges of the tribunal were Justices Sa’adu Mohammed, Joy Akpugunum, A.T. Badamasi and J.E. Ekanem.
At the end of its sittings, the tribunal also reaffirmed the INEC declaration that oyinlola was the winner. Aregbesola, who suspected foul-play on the party of the tribunal, also cried blue murder. He suspected that the judgment had been compromised, citing the fact that the leader of the panel was in constant telephone conversation with the leading defence counsel.
He therefore headed for the Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan under Justice Victor Omagie. With him were Justices Ali Garba, Benedict Agbatah, Ismaila Bashir, Muhammad Aliyu and Abimbola Ogie-Obaseki. Having reviewed the submissions from both sides, the Appeal Court ruled that the lower tribunal did not do a thorough job and therefore ordered the retrial of the case at the lower tribunal.
So, a retrial panel was reconstituted. The verdict? Oyinlola was again declared winner on May 28, 2010.
Aregbesola, undaunted, and convinced that he won the election, reassembled his team of lawyers, witnesses and proofs of evidence and again headed for the Appeal Court. Unarguably, the longest electoral battle in the current political dispensation.
Final submission
However, on November 1, the protracted case entered its final stage as both contenders made their last submission, before the Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan, capital city of Oyo State before the panel of Justices, headed by Clara Ogunbiyi, who was accompanied by M. R. Garba, P. A. Galinje, C. C. Nwabueze, and A. Jaure.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioner-Aregbesola’s team, led by former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi (SAN), said his client was faulting the lower tribunal’s judgment because, according to him, it has failed to consider the weight of evidence before making its conclusions. Olujimi made specific reference to Boripe local government, where the number of votes allotted to the PDP candidate was far higher than the total number of names available in the voters’ register there, maintaining that the tribunal erred to have ignored all the irregularities recorded in the 10 council areas during the polls.
He pointed out that exhibit 92 revealed that while the total number of registered voters in Boripe was 12,631, the total number of votes recorded for Oyinlola alone was 14,497. Aregbesola therefore wanted the result of elections in 10 local government areas cancelled. The 10 local governments which votes were disputed by Aregbesola were Ife Central, Odo Otin, Ayedaade, Isokan, Ife East, Ife South, Boripe, Atakumosa West, Boluwaduro and Ifedayo.
Aregbesola’s counsel claimed that in the 10 local governments, the results posted for their client and Oyinlola were 41,923 and 253,789 respectively. Insisting that elections in these 10 councils were characterised by wide spreadirregularities, multiple voting and discrepancies in voting patterns, Olujimi contended that such elections should be cancelled and the affected votes deducted from the overall election results of the gladiators.
The leading counsel then submitted that “when same is deducted from the overall result posted on Exhibit 92(1 & 2) and Exhibit 91 which are 240,722 and 426,669 for the first Appellant and 1st Respondent respectively, the lawful votes for the first Appellant would be 198,799 votes, as against the lawful votes of the 1st respondent put at 172,880.” On that ground, he urged the Appeal Court to nullify the votes in all the 10 councils and to declare Aregbesola winner of the governorship election since he has the majority of all the lawful votes cast.
On his side, Oyinlola, whose defence team comprised eight Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), led by Mallam Yusuf Ali, wanted the appeal of Aregbesola dismissed allegedly for lack of merit. With the successful delivery of this address, both Aregbesola and his lawyers are very hopeful that they have established valid and supposedly proven cases of irregularities, multiple voting and total non-compliance with the Electoral Act against the respondent, Oyinlola. They in turn expected the judges to weigh the arguments and evdiences.
However, Ali, bothered very little about
disputing the submissions of Olujinmi but concentrated his efforts mostly on convincing the panel to strike out Aregbesola’s case, for allegedly lacking in merit. According to him, the ground of the appellant’s appeal was not known to law, adding that the appeal was filed outside the stipulated time and therefore, should not be considered. He argued that the decision of the tribunal was based on the failure of Aregbesola to prove his case.
He cited the decision of the Court of Appeal in Amosun vs Daniel as having established that Ward Supervisors, who are not recognised in INEC’s election manual, cannot give credible reports on elections. According to him, Ward Supervisors were not known to Section 62 of the Electoral Act, and the evidence they gave at the tribunal was also not enough for Aregbesola to prove his allegations, which he insisted were criminal in nature. He added that since over voting was not pleaded before the tribunal, Aregbesola could not introduce such at the Appeal Court.
Also, arguing the cross appeal, Alli said the tribunal ought to have struck out the petition ab initio for incompetence because it was filed out of time. His words: “The ground upon which a petition could be based are statutory and set out in applicable provisions of the law. The grounds upon which the petitioners/cross respondents based their petition are unknown to the Electoral Act. A challenge to the ground upon which the petition was predicated is a challenge to the jurisdiction of the trial tribunal.
“The challenge to jurisdiction was properly raised by the 1st – 3rd respondents/cross appellants at the trial tribunal. The trial tribunal wrongly overruled the challenge to the petition in its judgment. The Honourable trial tribunal erred in law in failing to strike out the petition for incompetence when same was filed outside of the time allowed by law,” he argued.
While giving the particulars of the cross appeal, Yusuf said going by the date of declaration of the results and the date of filing, the petition was filed outside of the prescribed period, adding that the trial Tribunal clearly lacked jurisdiction to entertain the petition.
He added that instead of Aregbesola to call party agents and voters to give evidence of non-voting and non-counting of votes, he elected to call those he called ward supervisors who are not competent to give evidence on such. “It is settled in law by this honourable court in Amosun vs INEC that roving supervisors who never stayed in one place during an election had no place in the electoral laws,” he said.
He further urged the court to hold that it is not the number of witnesses called that would determine the outcome of a case, stressing that Aregbesola called witnesses, the quality of which could not entitle them to the kind of reliefs they sought from the court.
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