Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi has floored Olusola Eleka, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in last year’s governorship election in the state, at the Appeal Court.
At Thursday’s judgment, the Appeal Court in Abuja affirmed Fayemi’s victory at the July 14, 2018 governorship election in the state.
The judgment was unanimous as all the three-man panel, led by Justice Stephen Adah, dismissed the appeal filed by Eleka.
Adah stated that the appeal by Eleka lacked merit and upheld Fayemi’s victory at the poll.
Adah, said the court resolved all the seven issues raised against the appellants and in favour of the respondents — Fayemi, INEC and APC.
The court, which had conducted a hearing on the appeal earlier on Tuesday, dismissed the case in its judgment on Thursday for lacking in merit.
Justices Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson and Emmanuel Agim agreed with the lead judgment delivered by Justice Adah.
The summary of the judgment given on Thursday lasted more than 30 minutes.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had last year declared that Fayemi and his party, the All Progressives Congress, polled a total of 197,459 votes to defeated Eleka and the PDP who placed second with 178,121 votes in the July 14, 2018 election.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, PDP and Eleka had filed their petition before the Ekiti State Election Petition Tribunal which sat and delivered its judgment in Abuja.
The petitioners alleged, among others in their petition, that the election was marred by a lot of wrongs, including non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
But the tribunal on January 28, 2019 dismissed their petition and affirmed the results declared by INEC.
The petitioners further appealed to the Court of Appeal, raising seven issues against the judgment of the tribunal.
Punch.
