The Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) and its candidate in last October’s governorship election in Ondo
State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), yesterday filed an appeal against the
ruling of the Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Governor
Olusegun Mimiko winner of the poll. The suit was filed at the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the state capital. It is against the whole judgment, except the portion favourable to the ACN. The appeal, based on 39 grounds, was filed by 52 lawyers, led by Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN).
The appellants said the tribunal failed
to consider the documentary evidence before it and the testimonies of
their witnesses, which showed that many voters were not accredited, as
well as the corroborating testimonies of Mimiko’s witnesses under cross
examination. They said the tribunal erred by ruling that only the evidence of polling agents could prove the petitioners’ allegations. The appellants said the tribunal ought not to rely on the findings in a previous judgment to decide the case. They criticised the tribunal’s ruling
that the manipulation of the voters’ register was a pre-election matter
and it had no jurisdiction over it.
The appellants also said the tribunal could
entertain the matter because it falls under Section 183(1) of the
Electoral Act, which deals with non-compliance with the Act. They said the tribunal was inconsistent,
explaining that it once said all exhibits were not presented before it
and later held that they were dumped on it. The appellants said the tribunal applied
a non existing “Section 131(5) of the Electoral Act” to decline
jurisdiction over the voters’ register, which forms the fulcrum of a
valid election. They said lack of objection cannot
validate a void voters’ register, adding that giving soft copies of the
voters’ register to a party was not a substitute to the mandatory
display of the register before an election.
The appellants said the secrecy of
balloting guaranteed by the Electoral Act would be compromised, if they
had to prove who the over 164,000 persons, whose names were illegally
injected into the voters’ register, voted for, as suggested by the
tribunal’s judgment. They complained that the tribunal did not evaluate the evidence of their expert, which was based on its order. The appellants alleged that the tribunal
erroneously ruled that the expert’s qualification was not disclosed,
even though it was in the report admitted in evidence by it.
They also alleged that the tribunal ignored
Mimiko’s admission of irregularity and non-compliance in Irele and Ilaje
local governments, which corroborated their case. The appellants said since the Labour
Party (LP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did
not call any witness and Mimiko’s witnesses confirmed their allegation
of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the judgment should have been
in their favour. They said the ruling was not in line
with the evidence before the tribunal and urged the Court of Appeal to
set it aside and order a fresh election.
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