The Allied Peoples’ Movement’s case challenging Governor Seyi Makinde’s election victory on March 11 was rejected by the Governorship Election case Tribunal in Oyo State on Thursday.
Makinde was elected to a second term on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform.
APM reportedly petitioned the tribunal and disputed Makinde’s victory, according to Platinum Times. In this case, INEC and PDP are additional respondents.
Henry Bello, the attorney for APM, informed the tribunal that he had asked for the petition against Makinde to be withdrawn.
Bello claimed that Mr. Adeniran Oluwaseyi, the party’s candidate and the intended recipient of the petition, had lost faith in it and had instead congratulated Makinde.
The attorney for INEC, Kizito Duru, declared that he was not opposed to the petition and would not seek reimbursement for costs.
Isiaka Olagunju, a PDP attorney, declared that he was not opposed to the petition’s withdrawal. Then he requested that the tribunal impose a N2 million cost against the petitioner.
In his remarks, Kunle Kalejaye, the attorney for Makinde, stated that although he had also received the withdrawal application on the day the case was scheduled for hearing, he had no objections to it.
In order to serve as a deterrence to others, he urged the panel to deny the petition and impose a punitive cost of N10 million against the petitioner.
However, according to Platinum Times, the tribunal rejected the APM’s petition in a unanimous decision that was read by the tribunal’s chairman, Justice Ejiron Emudainohwo.
The panel awarded Makinde and PDP against APM N1 million each as costs.
The petition, according to Emudainohwo, was pointless.
She continued, calling it disgraceful that the petition had been submitted 46 days after the party had learned that their candidate was uninterested in it.
She argued that the petitioner should be charged with costs for squandering the resources and time used by the respondents to complete their processes as well as the time of the tribunal.