Edo poll: APC heads to Supreme Court

DESPITE the judgement of the Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in its favour over the disputed 2016 governorship election in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.

The party is asking the apex court to set aside the Court of Appeal judgment on its cross appeal over the recounting of ballot papers by the Elections Tribunal.

The appellate court had dismissed the cross appeal by the APC as third respondent in the petition before the tribunal, where Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his party, the PDP, challenged INEC declaration of Obaseki of the APC winner of the election.

The suit, which was filed on April 20 2017, few days after the tribunal judgment, has Ize-Iyamu, the PDP, the INEC and its governorship candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki as the respondents.

The APC had challenged the tribunal’s approval to PDP and Ize-Iyamu’s prayer for the ballot papers used in four local government areas of the state, namely Egor, Etsako East, Etsako West and Akoko-Edo to be recounted.

The governorship election petitions tribunal had ordered the stoppage of the recounting exercise following the expiration of the 14 days allotted the petitioners, to prove their case.

The petitioners had approached the Appeal Court to challenge the discontinuation by the tribunal of the recounting of the ballot papers.

In its verdict, the Appellate Court held that the decision of the Elections Tribunal to stop the recounting of the ballot papers after the expiration of the time alloted the petitioner was right, but okayed the order of the Tribunal to order the recount.

The Supreme Court has not fixed a date to hear the suit.