Appeal Court upholds Abiodun’s election as Ogun governor

A four-man panel of the Court of Appeal sitting at Ringroad in Ibadan,  led by Justice Abubakar Yahyah, on Monday, upheld the election of Prince Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of Ogun State in the February gubernatorial election.

The panel in its judgement upheld the September 14, 2019 ruling of the Ogun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta in its entirety and dismissed Akinlade’s appeal as having no merit.

The panel had resolved all the 10 issues raised by Akinlade and the APM to express his dissatisfaction at the ruling of the tribunal in favour of the APC candidate and dismissed the appeal and its 20 grounds in its entirety and had held that Abiodun was duly elected by majority of votes cast during the gubernatorial elections in Ogun state.

It would be recalled that the gubernatorial candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Ogun State, Adekunle Akinlade, had appealed the ruling of the Ogun state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The appeal was filed on October 18, 2019, against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Dapo Abiodun and the All Progressive Congress on the allegation that Abiodun’s victory was fraudulent, arguing  that the information on his nomination form was wrong and there were series of irregularities recorded during the election.

Akinlade’s counsel, Sebastine Hon, had prayed the court to grant all the prayers contained in the appeal of his client and dismiss the defence of all the respondents.

Abiodun’s counsel, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, In his argument before the court prayed the panel to uphold the judgement of the lower court and dismiss the appeal on the ground that it lacks merits.