The Ogun State Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, on
Friday struck out the petition by the Labour Party challenging the
victory of Governor Dapo Abiodun.
The Labour party had gone to the tribunal to challenge the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, for alleged unlawful exclusion of
the Party’s candidate from contesting during the last Governorship
election in the State.
The tribunal also awarded a N500, 000 compensatory fine against the
Labour Party, to be paid to Governor Abiodun. The tribunal predicated
its judgement on the absence of the petitioner in court and neither
was it represented by any counsel.
Reacting to the news, Governor Abiodun, declared that “the people
spoke with their votes on March 9 and today the Tribunal confirmed it.
That is democracy at work. So, I believe that puts an end to the
petition and we pray that petition will rest in perfect peace.
“Now, we expect all political parties and other purpose-driven
stakeholders to join hands with us to build our future together. ”
Speaking with newsmen after the judgement, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, SAN,
the lead counsel to the Governor, said that the petitioner had based
“their argument for nonappearance on a letter written to the Court of
Appeal asking for the case to be transferred which was rejected by the
Tribunal.”
Osipitan had prayed the court to dismiss the petition due to the
absence of the petitioner as enshrined in the nation’s law that when a
petitioner and its counsel failed to appear in court, such a petition
should be dismissed, which was later agreed upon by the tribunal
He said, “We joined issues with them that they have no candidates so
to say or that the nominations of the candidates were not lawful and
therefore INEC was right in not listing their candidate as for the
election. But, after we had filed all our papers, today (Friday) was
fixed for the hearing, for the case to commence. Neither the
petitioner, that is, the candidate of the party, nor their counsel was
in court.
“They predicated their absence on a letter they wrote to the president
of the court of appeal, asking for the case to be transferred. We felt
that is not a reason why they should not be in court at all, that even
if they have any issues, they should come to court and say it out loud
and clear.
“At any rate, we looked at the provisions of the law that says when a
case is fixed for hearing and the petitioner is not in court, then we
as respondents are entitled to judgement dismissing the case and once
it is dismissed, there is no room for it to be re-listed.
“So we invoked that provision and applied to the tribunal that the
petition be dismissed for want of diligent persecution because they
were absent in court.”
