“It has been a harvest of election nullifications in Ondo State in the last few weeks. At the last count, no fewer than 12 elections into both the National Assembly and State House of Assembly had been nullified by the two Election Petition Tribunals sitting in Akure.

James Sowole reports via ThisDay. Full text below:

In Nigeria , political history placed Ondo State as the political hub of the South West geo-political Zone. The first political party of the then Western Region took off from Owo, an ancient town of the Sunshine State . When talking of the progressive political activities in the old region, the contributions of notable people like the first Executive Governor of the State, late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Rueben Fasoranti, Chief Wunmi Adegbonmire, Senator Olorunnimbe Farukanmi and a host of others cannot be dismissed with a wave of hand.
The 1983 political crisis with the attendant destruction both in terms of human and property, is fresh in the minds of many political events watchers and which many still use to describe the people of the state as who abhor cheating. The contribution of notable indigenes of the state to the political struggle of the National Democratic Coalition(NADECO) for the enthronement of democracy in the country, also testified to the vibrancy of the people. The massive return of the choice of the people during the 1999 General Election in the person of the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati and the deliberate change of the people in 2003 against Adefarati in preference to the incumbent Governor, Olusegun Agagu clearly demonstrated the sensitivity of the people when a change is desired.
The level of political awareness of the people and their determination to ensure that their choice is respected when choosing their leaders, was demonstrated with the vigour they handled electoral processes into various offices before, during and after the April 14 and April 21, 2007 general election.
The startling revelations at the tribunals showed the level of commitment of the people to ensure that their choices were respected. Watchers of events were inundated daily during the preliminary hearing of various cases at the tribunals as documentary evidences which many thought cannot be obtained were tendered in pursuance of petitions. Apart from 1983 when the outcome of the governorship election involving first executive governor of the state, Chief Adekunle Ajasin and his estranged deputy, Chief Akin Omoboriowo was taken before the Election Petition Tribunal, the state has not witnessed legal fireworks at the courts.
The enormity of petitions emanating from the 2007 elections and the need to tackle them headlong necessitated the setting up of two election petitions tribunals in the state. While Justice Garba Nabaruma-led panel concentrated on the cases emanating from the gubernatorial poll in which the incumbent Governor, Dr Olusegun Agagu of the Labour Party (PDP) and Dr Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party (LP) are the main actors and few of the cases on the Legislative elections, the Justice Joseph Ikyegh led panel concentrated on the remaining exercises bothering on State and National Assembly Polls.
Until judgments started rolling in based on the documentary evidences placed before the two tribunals, the general belief was that it is very impossible to prove cases of election malpractices in Nigeria .
As at the time of filling this report, the LP was having an edge going by the outcome of various judgments delivered so far by the two tribunals. While the LP had secured one more seat at the State House of Assembly in addition to nine it had originally, the PDP in the state had suffered repeated losses as the panels keep nullifying the election of its members into the National and State House of Assembly one after the other.
So far, the PDP had lost six members of the State House of Assembly including the speaker, five members of House of Representatives and one Senate seat.
Those who had their elections nullified as members of the State House of Assembly by the two Election Petition Tribunals are Obagbemi Oladunjoye, Adebusoye Olaniyi, of Okitipupa constituencies 1 and 11 respectively, Pius Idowu Adebusuyi of Ifedore, Atikase Otito Thompson of Ilaje constituency 1, Igbekele Bolodeoku of Eseodo and the Speaker, Bakkita Olufowobi Bello of Akoko North -West I constituencies. Equally, a third term Senator and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Gbenga Ogunniya representing Ondo Central Senatorial District was asked to vacate his seat in the Upper chamber of the National Assembly by Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led Panel.
The members of the House of Representatives who got their elections nullified by the election panels are Agboola Ajayi representing Ilaje/Eseodo, Jones Akinyugha of Idanre/Ifedore, Gbenga Elegbeleye of Akoko North West and North East and Temitayo Fawehinmi representing Ondo East and West federal constituencies at the National Assembly. One of the causalities, Ajayi, the Chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had his election nullified twice. The first nullification was due to the fact that he was not qualified as at the time the election was held as the tribunal held that the certificate he tendered for the poll, was not genuine.
It will be an understatement to say that the leadership and the entire members of the PDP did not bargain for what befell the party in Ondo State which as at now accounted for the highest number of nullifications premised on the outcome of the April 2007 Elections. That the party’s leadership was not comfortable with the nullification of some determined petition was saying the obvious as they were anxious of what would be the outcome of the remaining three cases which the two tribunals will determine soon including the star petition which is the, gubernatorial.
The major reason for this is that some of the elections which were held the same day and in the same constituencies have been nullified by the election panel. These included the election of Prince Oyebo Aladetan of Ilaje Constituency I where the tribunal had nullified that of his counterpart in Constituency 11. The remaining House of Representatives Petition is that of Ile-Oluji/Odigbo Federal Constituency where the tribunal had determined the petitions of the LP in favour of the PDP candidates in respect of State House of Assembly.
One thing was common to all the cases that had been determined. The tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise fresh elections within periods ranging from 60 days to 90 days from the day the judgments were delivered. The only exemption was in the judgment delivered by Justice Garba Nabaruma-led panel, where the tribunal ordered that Pius Idowu Adebusuyi should vacate the Ifedore Constituency seat in the State Assembly for the LP candidate, Oloyelogun David Bamidele.
It must be noted that reasons for the nullification of these elections were similar. The tribunals based their judgments on proven cases of irregularities, corrupt practices, inflation of results in favour of the respondents, signing of election results by political office holders and use of unauthorised stamps like those of defunct NECON, FEDECO and NEC contrary to the provision of Electoral Acts 2006. There were cases of over voting, multiple registrations while cases of multiple thumbprinting were established thorough scientific method with the aid of finger print expert.
In all cases, the tribunal held that the number of votes declared in many poling units were more than the number of registered voters as revealed by the ballot recount exercise ordered by the panels while in many cases the figures in the INEC result sheets were far more than even the number of ballot papers supplied by the commission just as votes were allocated to political parties that did not contest election at all.
For example, the INEC stated in its result that Bolodeoku polled a total of 32,313 votes to emerge as winner of the election while his closer challenger, Prince Ibunkun Kalasuwe of LP scored 1,121. But in the vote recount ordered by the tribunal, a total of 21,529 was the total number of used and unused ballot papers found in the ballot boxes in the state constituency. Apart from a total of 12,952 in excess of the votes, the tribunal held that the ballot papers sent to the constituency for the election was only 4,000. This was despite the fact that an Electoral Officer posted to the zone, Mr Toyin Abegunde in his report had said that election did not hold because of massive violence in the area.
More curious in the judgment read by Justice Abdullahi Maiwada on behalf of others was that only six political parties contested the election but the electoral umpire gave result to 12 political parties just as governorship ballot papers found its way to the House of Assembly result.
Earlier, Justice Garba Nabaruma-led Tribunal had nullified the election of Fawehinmi representing Ondo East and West federal constituency at the House of Representatives and Adebusuyi representing Ifedore constituency at the State House of Assembly. The grouse of Dr Irinola Akinlaja who got judicial pronouncement to get Fawehinmi’s election nullified was that Fawehinmi was not duly returned by the total number of valid vote cast and the tribunal in upholding the submission based its verdict on the fact that there were different entries in both form EC8A II which is the Unit results form and form EC8B II which were used for collating of result.
The Justice Nabaruma-led tribunal that nullified the election of Fawehinmi also nullified the election of Adebusuyi. But in his case, his opponent in the election, Mr Bamidele Oleyelogun of LP was declared the winner of the election. The tribunal based its verdict on the irregularities discovered in the exhibits submitted by the petitioners and the evidences of the witnesses in the petitions.
For the election of Elegbeleye, the tribunal held that the election was irregular because there was massive thumb printing of ballot papers at the palace of Olukare of Ikare, Oba Akadiri Momoh. Also, the Tribunal discovered that inanimate objects were used for voting during the election by agents of the PDP’s candidate just as there was no accreditation of voters before the purported election took place
In their verdict having held that the election was fraught with irregularities, the justices said the petitioner was able to prove the allegations raised in the petition. These allegations, they said, included multiple voting, violence during the election and non accreditation of voters before the actual election. The Tribunal also held that the result declared by INEC did not tally with the actual voting when physical counting of the votes recorded during the election was carried out, just as the justices frowned at the discovery that inanimate objects were used during the voting exercise.
The same grounds for the nullification of election of other PDP members were also the one used for the nullification of Atikase’s election, who represent Ilaje Constituency11 in the Assembly. The Justice Joseph Ikeygh-led Election Petition Tribunal predicated its decision on the non-compliance substantially with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2006 as to who should sign the form EC8A and EC8B.
In the verdict, the tribunal held that the result declared by INEC was 31,119 while the vote recount showed 20,490. Out of the result of the vote recount, it was discovered that only 11,900 has INEC stamps. Other were either not stamped or signed by the electoral officers. Delivering the unanimous judgment on behalf of others, Justice Ijem Onwuagbu said “there is no basis for the return of the first respondent (Atikase) representing Ilaje constituency two hence it has been established that the April 14 elections contained a lot of irregularities and malpractices.
Delivering judgment in the petition filed against Akinyugha’s return by the LP candidate in the election, Mr. Moshood Bakare, Justice Paul Elechi who read the judgment on behalf of others said the election was nullified on the grounds of over-voting and signing of election results by seven serving political office holders.
According to the justices, since the election was based on ballot count, the result of the votes count as ordered by the tribunal cannot sustain the Respondent. Rather, it supported the allegation of electoral malpractices basically against INEC as canvassed by the Petitioner.
Justice Elechi wondered how 25,477 ballot papers would be found and counted in INEC’s bags while a total of 38,130 was recorded in the Commission’s results form without any explanation by the electoral body as to the whereabouts of the shortfall of 12,563.
In the determined cases, the actions and inactions of the officials of the INEC were exposed while the collusion of some law enforcement agents was found to negate their callings. The tribunal berated an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Chris Oloyede, who signed election results as the PDP agent during the House of Representative Election in Ese Odo Federal Constituency.
Justice Yargatha Nimpa, who read the judgment, said “it was incomprehensible that a public officer in the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police could act as party agent.”
Though, the tribunal did not deal with the crime content of various petitions, it had harsh words for the elected officers who used their positions to influence the outcome of the elections saying for the nation’s democracy to grow, the incidence of excesses of public office holders who use their positions to circumvent the electoral rights of the people must be firmly checked.
The tribunal expressed its disgust in a clear manner about political office holders signing election results sheets while giving judgment in the petition against the return of the former speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr Bakkita Bello, as it was established that the Attorney-General and the Commissioner for Justice of Ondo State, Mr. Yemi Alao signed results sheets in five out of the six wards that made up Akoko North West Constituency 1.
“Should the absence of sanctions in the provision of Electoral Law of Nigeria be a license for the breach of the same especially signing of election result sheets by Chief Law Officer of a state. The answer should be no”, says Justice Ijem Onwuamgbu who read the judgment.
The judgments of the electoral panels were not about nullification of election as victories of some members have been upheld by the panels while the petitions of the aggrieved candidates have been dismissed. Apart from the LP and the only Alliance for Democracy (AD) lawmakers who had their elections upheld, some members of the ruling party have also got their elections upheld. Some of the beneficiaries of the soft side of the tribunal were Senator Bode Olajumoke representing Ondo North Senatorial district, Dr Wole Olakunde representing Okitipupa/Irele federal constituency and Hon. Alaba Oladoyinbo Ojomo, representing Owo/Ose Constituency.