The Appeal Court sitting in Lagos, has upheld the judgment of the National Assembly Petition Tribunal which validated the victory of Sen. Sharafadeen Alli (APC- Oyo South), as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This is contained in a statement signed by Alli’s Special Adviser on Media, Akeem Abas, and made available to newsmen on Saturday in Ibadan.
It would be recalled that Alli had earlier won at the Tribunal in Ibadan, Oyo State capital and now he has fully won the separate appeals filed by Chief Joseph Tegbe of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Funmilola Gbogbolomo of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
The court dismissed Tegbe’s appeal on grounds that it lacked merit, thereby affirming the judgment of the tribunal.
The court agreed with the tribunal and the defendants that the case was a pre-election matter, while also agreeing that the appellant did not prove non-compliance as alleged.
Tegbe and Gbogbolomo had appealed the judgments of the tribunal which dismissed their separate petitions against Alli’s victory in the February 25 National Assembly election in Oyo South, saying that the evidence presented before it by Tegbe and the PDP was not credible and convincing.
It said that Tegbe had failed to present cogent, reliable, and compelling evidence, sufficient to affect the results of the poll as declared by INEC.
While delivering the final judgment in the NNPP case, the Tribunal held that the petition was incompetent as the ground upon which it was premised related to a pre-election matter which ought not to be brought before the Tribunal.
It added that the petitioners also failed to rebut the presumption of regularity in the conduct of the Election by INEC.
