Tribunal Declares Obanikoro Winner of Ikoyi/Obalende LCDA Chairmanship Election

 

The five-man tribunal, presided over by retired Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, in its judgment delivered on Thursday, held that Obanikoro scored the highest number of valid votes in the election.

It said that from the available evidence before the tribunal, Obanikoro scored a total of 3,770 valid votes, while Mr Adewale Adeniji, of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), scored 3,248 votes.

The tribunal therefore nullified Adeniji’s election and ordered the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) to revoke the Certificate of Return issued to him.

"We order LASIEC to issue a Certificate of Return to the petitioner with immediate effect, having won the disputed election.

"We are also awarding N100,000 as cost in favour of the petitioner," the tribunal said.

Reports say that Babajide is the son of Amb. Musiliu Obanikoro, a chieftain of the PDP and a former gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State.

The younger Obanikoro and the PDP had dragged LASIEC, the ACN and its candidate, Adeniji, before the tribunal.

He had asked the tribunal to upturn the election result, claiming that the results were not collated at the ward and local government levels but were only declared at the LASIEC's headquarters.

Obanikoro had further claimed that the election was characterised by violence and electoral malpractice, allegedly perpetrated by the ACN’s thugs in connivance with LASIEC’s officials.

He had equally claimed that he won the election after collating the results from the LASIEC’s Forms 9A, issued at each polling unit but were not used by LASIEC in declaring the result.

In its judgment, the tribunal held that the petitioner failed to prove his allegation that the election in the council’s five wards were characterised by violence and electoral malpractice.

It held that the 37 witnesses called by the petitioner failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the criminal allegations made against the LASIEC staff as mandated by the rules of evidence.

However, it held that the petitioner proved to the tribunal that election results were not collated at the unit and ward levels as shown in the LASIEC’s Forms 9A, admitted as exhibits.

"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 on them as regards the collation of the results.

"It transferred the onus to the respondents who did not tender any LASIEC Form 9A which is the first stage of any election,’’ the tribunal said.

It said the petitioners showed that the non-collation of the results at the unit and ward levels substantially affected the outcome of the result declared by LASIEC.