Osun State National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, the State capital, has affirmed the victory of the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Boripe/Boluwaduro State Constituency in 2023 general elections, Mr. Femi Popoola.
Popoola was returned elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission after the March 18 election but the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party at the poll, Abayomi Aina, approached the Tribunal seeking nullification of APC’s candidate’s victory.
According to INEC, the APC candidate of polled 15,594 votes to defeat PDP’s Aina, who got 14,817 votes at the election.
Aina and the PDP were listed as 1st and 2nd petitioners in the petition marked EPT/OS/SHA/02/2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Popoola and APC
were marked as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents.
Delivering the judgement, the
panel, in a unanimous decision, dismissed Aina’s petition and upheld Popoola’s victory.
In the judgement read by Justice Jibril Umar, on behalf of Justice Ado Yusuf Birnin-kudu, the Chairman of the panel, and Justice Ngozi Oyeke, the panel dismissed Aina’s petition, saying the petitioners failed to prove that they won the poll.
Umar said, “The tribunal hereby dismissed the petition for lacking the substance needed. Consequently, the Tribunal affirm the victory of the respondents in the election held in Boluwaduro/Boripe State Constituency, Osun State on 18th March, 2023.”
