Court of appeal rules on Seyi Makinde’s election as governor of Oyo State

The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan has affirmed the victory of Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Oyo State governorship election.

The court upheld the decision of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which declared Governor Makinde as the winner of the March 9 poll, in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Abubakar Yahaya on Monday, November 11th.

It, however, dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Adebayo Adelabu. Justice Yahaya, the lead judge of the four-man panel, despite upholding the decision of the Tribunal, however, disagreed with the lower court on issues bordering on documents tendered by the APC.

He held that the documents tendered by the appellants ought to have guided the Tribunal through proper investigation, stressing that the pieces of evidence were also not adequately evaluated. The lead judge noted that the Tribunal had committed a miscarriage of justice by its failure to analyse the tendered documents and its failure to evaluate the pieces of evidence presented by the APC.

In his reaction, the PDP lead counsel, Eyitayo Jegede, told reporters that Makinde remains the governor since there has been no counter directive by the appellate court on his victory. The lead counsel to APC, Adeboye Shobanjo, on his part, agreed with the court for allowing the appeal to hold. He, however, stressed that the Tribunal delivered a one-sided judgement.