… declare us winner – PDP
…we still win by 58, 696 votes after deduction – APC
Ahmed Badamasi-led election petition tribunal sitting in Benin-City has reserved judgment In a petition challenging the declaration of Governor Godwin Obaseki of All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the last September 28, 2016 Edo state governorship election.
The tribunal’s decision was sequel to the adoption of final written addresses by counsel to the petitioners and respondents respectively.
BusinessDay reports that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu are challenging the declaration of the governor Godwin Obaseki, the APC candidate the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had declared APC and its candidate winner of the election with 319, 483 votes while PDP scored 253, 173 votes.
The tribunal chairman who reserved judgment for a later date said “having adopted your final written addresses the tribunal will adjourn and a date for judgment will be communicated to parties”.
Earlier in the adoption of his final address, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel to APC told the tribunal that its client won the election by 58′ 696 votes after proper computations of final results.
“If there was deduction in the recount of results declared by INEC, APC will still win by 58, 696 votes”, he said.
Fagbemi who prayed the court to dismiss the petition of the petitioners noted that the chart of scores of parties prepared by the petitioners was unnecessary, adding that it was just a cumulative table.
He urged the tribunal to be more interested in the outstanding votes that are in favour of the second respondents if all the alleged invalid votes were deducted from the final results.
On his part Wole Olanipekun (SAN) counsel to Godwin Obaseki urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the ground that the identity of the petitioner is different from the PDP candidate.
Olanipekun opined that the name of Pastor Osagie Andrew Ize-Iyamu used in the petition was different from Osagie Andrew Izs-Iyamu used for the election.
He said there was no pastor in his name in the document used for the conduct of the election but it was only added in the petition.
He opined that with the conflict in identity of the first petitioner the petition was deemed as incompetent and doom to fail.
In his submission counsel to the petitioners, Yusuf Alli (SAN), urged the tribunal to grant the petition and dismissed the objections of the respondents.
“The most logical thing thing to do is for the court to grant the petition”, he added.
While hinging the success of the petition on 10 points, he noted that the petition was an unusual petition being fought in usual way by the respondents.
He opined that all all allegations in the election were made against INEC against what it used to be in the past.
He averred that by virtue of the petition only INEC can answer all the allegations and not any other party.
According to him, other respondents were not called to defend the allegations against INEC. Nobody can debunked the allegations except INEC because of the peculiar of the election.
Alli who said the petition was mainly based on documentary evidences noted that all the documents admitted in the petition were before the court.
On the identity of the PDP candidate, he argued that it was only PDP that can question the identity of the candidate and not any other party.
He said no member of PDP was challenging the candidacy of the petitioner.
He however urged the court to uphold the petition and declared the petitioners as the winners of the election.
“I urge the court to hold that there is merit in all the complaints of the petitioners and as result of the merit the petitioners should be declared as the duly elected candidate of the election”, he stated.
