Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, the Edo State capital, will today deliver judgment on the appeal filled by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, against the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal judgment.
The panel of three-man tribunal headed by Justice Ahmed Badamasi had on April 14, 2017 judgment dismissed the petition of the PDP and its candidate and upheld the declaration of Governor Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress winner of the September 28, 2016 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the petitioners filled 40 grounds of appeal at the Appeal Court against the tribunal’s judgment. The date of the judgment was communicated to counsel to both parties in the appeal.
The Appeal Court is expected to touch among other grounds of appeal an order setting aside the decision of the tribunal and another order nullifying the return of the second respondent, Obaseki, while declaring Ize-Iyamu as the winner, having scored the highest number of lawful votes cast in the September 28, 2016 poll.
The appellants in the appeals alleged that the tribunal judges erred and truncated their right to fair hearing by the unequal treatment given to the cases of the parties, “by first finding fault, discrediting, disbelieving and dismissing their petition before considering at all and reviewing the testimonies of the witnesses of the respondents and, thus, occasioning a miscarriage of justice.”
The appellants further told the Court of Appeal that the tribunal also erred in law and truncated their right to fair hearing where, in consideration of their case, it failed “totally” to consider and make any pronouncement on the issue concerning, “whether the second respondent was duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast” in the election “and if not, whether the first petitioner (Ize-Iyamu) is not entitled to be returned as the Governor of Edo State.”
In their separate addresses, the APC, INEC and Governor Godwin Obaseki urged the court to disregard the appeal by the appellants, and also filed a cross appeal asking the court to invalidate the order by the tribunal for the inconclusive recount of ballot papers used during the election.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN
