Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, on Tuesday, crossed yet another hurdle as the Supreme Court of Nigeria affirmed his victory as the duly elected governor of Ekiti in the June 21, 2014 governorship election.
The apex court, in an unanimous decision by a seven-man panel led by John Fabiyi, a Supreme Court Justice, upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and the state’s Governorship Election Tribunal, which had both ruled that the petition challenging Fayose’s victory lacked merit.
The court dismissed all the grounds of appeal filed by the APC and resolved all four issues arising from the appeal against the party.
Dissatisfied by the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on June 22, 2014 that Fayose won the election with 203,090 votes against Kayode Fayemi, former governor of the state, who polled 120,433, the APC filed a petition, urging the governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja to nullify the election.
The petitioner based its arguments on the grounds of alleged electoral irregularities, intimidation of its leaders by the military, ineligibility of Fayose to stand for the election and allegation that the PDP candidate forged his Higher National Diploma certificate presented to INEC.
The Siraju Mohammed-led tribunal had, in its verdict delivered on December 19, 2014, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.
Also, the Abdul Aboki-led five-man panel affirmed the decision of the tribunal. But the APC further appealed to the Supreme Court having been dissatisfied with the Court of Appeal’s decision.
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