The ousted Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, has justified why he decided to seek review of the Court of Appeal judgment that ousted him.
The Appeal Court, in its judgment of November 2019, validated the outcome of the Justice Danladi Adeck-led Election Petition Tribunal, which ousted Adeyeye and declared Senator Biodun Olujimi of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), the actual winner of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had declared Adeyeye the winner of the February 23, 2019 Senatorial election, following which Olujimi, who was occupying the seat then approached the court and got favourable verdict.
Stunned by the judgment, Adeyeye sent a petition to the Appeal Court President, Justice Binta Bulkachuwa, seeking review of the judgment, he described as error-ridden, in the mathematical computation of the results.
Speaking while appearing on a programme tagged: ‘Journalists Hangouts’ , on Television Continental (TVC) in Lagos, which was monitored in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, Adeyeye delved extensively on the review being sought, which bordered on the reversal of the appeal court judgment, describing the verdict as a travesty and abrasion of the rule of law.
He said: “when you find out that an election is fraught with irregularities and of course my election is never fraught with irregularities, the remedy that is available is already in section 140 sub-section 2 of the electoral act. They went against that, which is that you don’t declare any winner and awarded victory to her.
“All you will say is to go for a rerun election, but they went as far as to declare a winner because they know if they conduct this election hundred times, I will always win.
“My opponent is afraid including her conspirators that I will always win anytime any day. If they declare another election now, I will win with a larger margin, that is the truth.
“They have disenfranchised the entire people of Ekiti South and it is not fair to them. They know who they voted for, go there and do any research. I am fighting now not for myself but for the people.
“The election is clean and I have told you the mathematical impossibilities that are contained in that judgment like adding 37 and one to be 71 instead of 38.
“They should have asked at least another election, but they know if they hold this election in many times, I will always win”, Adeyeye stated.
But Senator Olujimi countered the position maintained by Adeyeye that she got undeserved and perverted justice.
She wondered why Adeyeye decided to embark on a voyage of judicial rigmaroling, having lost at both Tribunal and Appeal courts.
The Senator queried that; “Does he want the tribunal to be reconstituted for him? After all, he had a representation of eminently qualified lawyers at both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal. Despite that, he got 3-0″.
Olujimi added further: ” All the judges at the tribunal agreed that I won the election. At the appellate court I also scored three – zero. If he was sleeping at the Tribunal, was he also sleeping at the appeal. Is he asking them to reconstitute a statute-barred tribunal for him or what is he saying.
” Has he gone to court or is just writing a frivolous petition? Is he saying that six judges don’t know what they were doing?
“I have tried not to speak about it because I know he is hurt and injured, but when you are running after a thing and you don’t get it, you take a rest. ”He is not the only one that lost election at the tribunal”, she said.
NAN