31st January, 2013
By Akin Kuponiyi & Yisa Jamiu
The Election Appeal Tribunal sitting in Lagos today upheld the appeal filed by the ACN candidate against the election petition tribunal’s judgment declaring Mr. Babajide Obanikoro of the PDP as the winner of the local council election held in Ikoyi/Obalende Local Council Development Area, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, on 22 October, 2011.
In its unanimous decision, the 5-man Appeal Tribunal led by Justice Opeyemi Oke, quashed the decision of the lower tribunal based on two grounds.
The first ground is that the petition was time-bound and as such the lower tribunal ought not to have delivered its judgement after 30 days, adding that this was contrary to the provisions in section 14 (1) of LG Election Laws of Lagos State.
Secondly, the appeal tribunal descended heavily on Obanikoro’s counsel.
In the lead judgement by Justice Candide-Johnson, the lawyer was berated for abandoning his application for extension of time at the Petition Tribunal for 60 days to enable him prove his case.
The Appeal Tribunal said this jeopardised Obanikoro’s petition and consequently upheld the appeal by the ACN candidate, Mr. Adewale Adeniji.
The Lagos State Local Government Election Petitions Tribunal had on 4 October, 2012, declared Mr. Babajide Obanikoro, the validly elected Chairman of Ikoyi/Obalende Local Council Development Area, Lagos.
The tribunal had nullified the declaration by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, that the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mr. Adewale Adeniji, won the council poll in the area on 22 October, 2011.
The five-man tribunal presided over by retired Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, while delivering judgment on the petition filed by Obanikoro challenging the declaration of Adeniji as the winner, held that the PDP candidate polled the highest number of valid votes in the election.
The tribunal nullified Adeniji’s election and ordered LASIEC to revoke the Certificate of Return issued to him.
Obanikoro, son of former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Musiliu Obanikoro, the tribunal ruled, scored 6,780 valid votes while Adeniji scored 6,248 votes.
According to the tribunal, the petitioners, Obanikoro and the PDP, were able to prove that the election results were not collated at the polling units.
Akinsanya said: “Section 11(2) of the Local Government Elections Petitions Tribunal Law 2011 empowers this tribunal to nullify any election that does not comply with the laid down regulations.
“The petitioners have been able to discharge the burden of proof vested in them as regards the collation of results.
“The petitioners have shown that the non-collation of the results at the units and ward level substantially affected the outcome of the result declared by LASIEC.
“We order LASIEC to issue a Certificate of Return to the petitioners with immediate effect having won the disputed election.”
The tribunal also awarded N100,000 as cost against the respondents in favour of the petitioners.
Obanikoro had, in his petition, asked the tribunal to upturn the election on the grounds that the results were not collated at the ward and local government levels but were only declared at LASIEC’s headquarters.
Such procedure adopted by LASIEC was said to be contrary to relevant provisions of the Electoral Act.
After the judgment, the ACN candidate appealed and after a long adjournment, judgment was delivered today.