The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday dismissed petition brought before it by Surveyor Oyekalu Rasheed Oyegbami against the victory of Prince Akeem Adeyemi in the 2023 election in AFIJIO/Atiba/Oyo East/Oyo West federal constituency.
Oyekalu, candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, had dragged Adeyemi, his party, All Progressives Congress, APC, as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to the tribunal over alleged logo omission and disenfranchisement of his supporters on the election day.
In the petition, Oyekalu had alleged that the deliberate non-use of NNPP’s logo and name on the ballot papers used at the Oyo Federal constituency’s election of 25th February, 2023, prevented and disenfranchised thousands of the petitioners’ members, voters and supporters from participating.
In the election, Hon. Akeem Adeyemi polled 34,822 while Oyekalu had 1,468 votes.
In the judgment agreed to by all three panel members, the tribunal averred that the petition was incompetent and not suitable for election petition tribunal as it is a pre-election matter.
“In fact, this case is not an election matter as it lacks merit and is dismissed. It’s clearly clear that the petitioners are not quite sure of their cases because they partook in the election they raised concern about,” the tribunal remarked.
The tribunal also awarded the sum of N500, 000 against the petitioner.
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