Tribunal Sacks State Lawmaker, Orders Rerun In Some Polling Units

….An Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Akure has nullified the election of a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly representing Ileoluji/Okeigbo state constituency, Hon. Nelson Akinsuroju of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The tribunal also ordered rerun elections in 6, of the 27 polling units where the people’s democratic party (PDP) candidate challenged the election results.

The court therefore declared the March 18th, 2023 Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Constituency election inconclusive.

The tribunal ruled on a petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Candidate, Babatunde Fadare against the election of Akinsuroju.

The lawmaker was announced winner by INEC, after scoring a total number of 10,207 votes, to beat the PDP candidate who scored 9,287 votes.

The petitioner urged the court to declare the election inconclusive and order INEC to conduct supplementary election in the 6 units where election were disrupted.

The petitioner also joined INEC and APC as respondents in the petition.

The three-man panel led by the Chairman, Rose Soji, on Tuesday ordered a rerun in 6 affected polling units in Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo local government area of Ondo State.

Reacting to the judgement, counsel to Akinsuroju, Remi Olatubora SAN, represented by Barrister Olumide Ogidan said that the judgement was one sided, and that it is based on morality of the case and not competence of the results, he added that the decision would be challenge at the appeal court.

(Sunshine Truth)