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Dapo Abiodun living in self delusion, says Kashamu
Our attention has been drawn to media reports credited to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Ogun East Senatorial District, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, that his purported victory at the National and State Assemblies Election Petitions Tribunal was an act of God.
Abiodun must be living in self delusion for him to claim any victory because none was awarded to him. Clearly, God is not mocked. It should be noted that it took him over 72 hours to say anything after the tribunal gave its controversial verdict.
For clarification purposes, we wish to reiterate that the tribunal did not nullify Senator Kashamu’s election. It only nullify the votes attributed to both candidates in 110 polling units out of 1,135 polling units in Ogun East Senatorial District.
In its judgment, the tribunal said at Page 133 that, “We do not feel comfortable to nullify the election in Ogun East Senatorial District when 146,533 votes are valid because of 37,008 unlawful votes. We nullify the election into the Senatorial seat in the following polling units and order a fresh election.”
It is worthy to note that after cancelling the results of the election in the 110 polling units, the tribunal awarded 70,677 votes to Abiodun and 75,856 to Senator Kashamu.
The implication is that Senator Kashamu is still leading Abiodun with 5,179 votes. So, how can someone trailing behind Senator Kashamu with over 5,000 votes be claiming victory? How can someone who was defeated by Senator Kashamu in his polling booth, ward and local government be claiming victory? It does seem to us that he wants to get through the back door what he could not get in a free and fair contest.
At this stage, it is pertinent to ask some questions: Can a tribunal nullify the election of a leading candidate? If the reverse were the case, would the tribunal not have declared Abiodun the winner of the election? As clearly stated by the tribunal, it could not nullify Senator Kashamu’s election because of 37,008 votes that were cancelled from the results of both candidates.
It is also very important to reiterate that the rerun was ordered in 110 out of over 1,135 polling units in the senatorial district. That is less than 10 percent of the polling units in the senatorial district.
Put differently, according to the tribunal, the election was successfully held in 1,025 polling units representing 90.3% of the senatorial district as against the purportedly flawed 110 polling units representing 9.7% of the senatorial district! In effect, the election had a 90.3% success rate!
Another reason we believe the tribunal’s verdict was a travesty of justice is: there is nowhere in the Electoral Act where an Election Tribunal is empowered to make order a partial rerun of an election.
What the Act says is that if the irregularity complained of is deemed substantial enough to warrant a nullification, then a fresh rerun must be ordered, not a partial rerun. But, where the irregularity is not deemed substantial, then the election ought to be upheld and the petition dismissed. So, it is either an outright rerun or an election result is upheld. We believe that our electoral laws do not make allowance for partial rerun.
Abiodun and his pay masters must also not forget that Senator Kashamu has a right of appeal which he is already exercising. And until that is decided one way or another, he remains the Senator representing the good people of Ogun East Senatorial District. They have spoken loud and clear and the tribunal has reinforced it even after the unwarranted deductions.
So, for Abiodun’s information, Senator Kashamu will remain in office. His certificate of return is still with him. It has not been withdrawn because there is no such consequential order.
Among other grounds, the Court of Appeal will decide whether the tribunal has the right to call for a rerun where less than 10% was found to be irregular, bearing in mind that there is always human errors/factors in every election which the tribunal itself acknowledged.
It is our humble view that the percentage of irregularities is less than 10% and it did not substantially change the result of the election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
So, the earlier Mr. Dapo Abiodun wakes up from his grand illusion the better for him. Truly, the good people of Ogun East Senatorial District have spoken and it has been unwittingly affirmed by the tribunal. We empathise with Abiodun on yet another forlorn ambition. He should take and be strong, knowing full well that another opportunity will soon be here in 2019.
Signed
Austin Oniyokor
Media aide to Senator Buruji Kashamu
13/10/2015
Sent from my iPhone
