Confusion in Oyo: APC, PDP claim victory in Appeal court judgment

Gov. Seyi Makinde

Governor Makinde

Governor Makinde: Appeal court verdict has changed nothing

Both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State are claiming victory of sorts from the verdict of the appeal court on the gubernatorial contest between incumbent Seyi Makinde and Adebayo Adelabu of the APC.

While the APC said the verdict was unambiguous as it set aside the tribunal judgement that validated the election of Makinde, the spokesman of Makinde also said the verdict was so crystal clear as it did not affect the status quo, that Makinde remains the governor.

Assistant Publicity Secretary of APC, Prince Ayobami Adejumo reacting to the judgment said it validated the claims of the party and its candidate Adebayo Adelabu that Makinde did not win the 9 March governorship election.

“The Court of Appeal found that the Judgement of the lower Tribunal, which dismissed the petition of the APC’s gubernatorial candidate, Adelabu, challenging the election of Makinde in the election of March 9, 2019 was perverse and therefore set the Judgement aside,” Adejumo said.

“The verdict given on Monday was unambiguous, apt and sound enough to convince any informed mind about the genuineness of our claim that Makinde’s declaration as the winner of the March 9 poll was done by INEC in error.

Adebayo Adelabu: APC governorship candidate in Oyo State

“The results announced were ridiculously inflated and there is no way such conspiracy could stand the test of proper scrutiny as this was just confirmed by the Appellate Court.

In contrast, Governor Seyi Makinde said the judgment of the Appeal Court has changed nothing, contrary to the spin that the APC has given it.

Makinde, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa, declared that the mandate could not be taken away from him through the backdoor.

“There is no ambiguity as to the state of things in our pacesetter state as far as the election of March 9, 2019 is concerned.

“Our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won the election. The victory was reaffirmed by the judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Ibadan.

“On Monday, the Court of Appeal, also sitting in Ibadan, delivered its judgment on the appeal by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adebayo Adelabu.

“In its judgment, the Appeal Court refused to grant any of the three key reliefs sought by the APC candidate.

“The court refused to nullify the election; it also refused to order a fresh election or the retrial of the petition.

“With the above being the reality of the outcome of the Appeal Court judgment, the election of Seyi Makinde as the Governor of Oyo State has just been reaffirmed.

“There is nothing in the Appeal Court’s judgment that affects the returns made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and there is nothing that tampers with the mandate freely given to Seyi Makinde by the people of Oyo State.

“Gov. Makinde hereby urges the good people of the state to remain calm and refuse to be provoked by agents of disruption who are seeking to upturn the truth, which remains constant, against all odds.

“We also wish to enjoin the people of Oyo state to ignore the doctored reports in some media outlets, which are merely quoting the judgment of the Court of Appeal out of context,” the statement read.

APC’s Adejumo on the contrary lauded the Court and reaffirmed its strong belief in the Judiciary as the pillar of hope for the sustenance of democracy.

Adejumo, however regretted that the people of the state would still have to wait for the final adjudication on the case before their candidate could reclaim his mandate.

“We use this opportunity to salute the court for living up to its responsibility as the last hope of the common man,” he said.

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The party appealed to the people of the state including Oyo APC faithful and other key stakeholders to remain calm and resist being provoked, in whatever way or form by the PDP government and its agents.

He said that the PDP government in the state and its agents are apparently occupying the Agodi Government House on borrowed time.

“Obviously, the next line of action is for us as a party and our gubernatorial hopeful to approach the Supreme Court for perfection of the landmark verdict delivered by the Court of Appeal today.

“And by the special Grace of God, we shall obtain favourable judgment from the Apex Court as only this would lend credence to the fact Nigeria’s democratic practice is premised on free and fair elections as well as the rule of law,” the party said.

Makinde on his part assured the people of the state that he would not be deterred from taking the state to greater heights through the implementation of his four-point agenda.

The governor assured that positive governance and unprecedented development would continue to be the portion of the people of the state throughout his tenure.

In his interpretation of the verdict, Makinde’s lead counsel, 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.”

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 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 effuxion 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 miscarriage of justice against the appellants.”

What the court said: The Court set aside the Tribunal judgment which upheld the election of Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.

In a split judgment, three of the Justices described the tribunal judgment as “perverse”.

The court held that the APC and its candidate were not given a fair hearing by the tribunal, but ordered that the status quo before the tribunal’s judgment should remain.

The four-man panel also held that if not for the time constraint, it would have ordered a retrial by the tribunal – The Electoral Act allows only 180 days for the tribunal to exhaust and hear a petition and deliver judgment.

Three out of the four Justices resolved all issues in favour of the appellants.

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