PUNCH - Lagos
State Local Government Election Petitions Appeal Tribunal has upturned
the judgment of the lower election petition tribunal, which declared the
Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Babajide Obanikoro, as the winner
of the 2011 chairmanship election in Obalende/Ikoyi Local Council
Development Authority.
The Justice Opeyemi Oke-led five-man
tribunal, in its judgment on Thursday, unanimously declared that the
state’s Independent Electoral Commission had rightly returned the Action
Congress of Nigeria and its candidate, Mr. Adewale Adeniji, as the
winner of the election.
Obanikoro had on November 14, 2011 filed
his petition at the LG Election Petitions Tribunal challenging the
declaration of Adeniji as the winner of the election which was held on
October 22, 2011.
The lower tribunal on October 4, 2012 in
its judgment nullified Adeniji’s election and declared Obanikoro as the
elected chairman.
However, the appellate tribunal held in
its judgment that the failure of the lower tribunal to hear and
determine Obanikoro’s petition within 30 days of filling it and not
giving a specific order for extension of time had robbed it of its
requisite jurisdiction.
In the lead judgment delivered by
Justice Babajide Candide-Johnson, the tribunal dismissed Obanikoro’s
petition, describing it as “incurably bad”.
It held that the failure of the lower
tribunal to hear and determine the petition within 30 days contrary to
provisions of Section 14 of the State’s Local Government Election
Tribunal Law, had rendered the entire proceedings “a nullity”.
The appeal panel blamed Obanikoro’s
lawyers led by Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN) for their decision to
withdraw their application filed on the strength of Section 54 of the
LGETL, seeking 60 days extension of the petition’s life span.
Describing the lawyers’ decision as “an
unpardonable blunder”, Candide-Johnson said the decision had no
acceptable “explanation or justification”.
He said the lawyers “did not first accord priority to save the life of the election petition”.
A member of the panel, Justice Kazeem
Alogba, said in his supporting judgment, that the lawyers’ mistake was
“a fatal somersault”.
On her part, Oke said it was “a grave
error”, adding that the provisions of Section 54 of the law was not “a
decorative ornament” in the law book.
Candide-Johnson also blamed the lower
tribunal led by Justice Dolapo Akinsaya (retd.) for refusing to look
into its record and accord priority to Obanikoro’s application for
extension of time but preferred to hear ACN’s preliminary objection to
the petition first.
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