Ekiti Guber election: Segun Oni swept off Ekiti governorship as Kayode Fayemi moves in almost four years after
A Federal Appeal court has nullified the election of Peoples Democratic Party Segun Oni, the incumbent governor of Ekiti State, reinstating Kayode Fayemi of Action Congress Nigeria almost four years after the election and just months to the next holding next year.
The real winner of the election has been a subject of litigation for several years following allegations of rigging and the eventual legal challenge by the winner, Action Congress Nigeria candidate, Kayode Feyemi
A Nigerian court on Friday annulled the election of the southwestern state of Ekiti and installed his rival in a pin- fall legal wrestle now grabbing a landmark mandate to take over as Ekiti state governor, nearly four years after the vote was held and just months ahead of fresh polls.
The court had based its ruling on a legal challenge to a rerun election held in the state last year which cancelled the result of voting in two state constituencies of Ido Osi and Ifaki.
The court held that the so called reasons made up for the cancellation were faked claiming the reasons were concocted.
The supposed cast 8000 votes were then deducted from the PDP result – thus handing over victory to the Action Congress candidate, Kayode Fayemi.
The judges lambasted INEC and Police’s handlings of the 2007 and 2009 elections in the state.
The handed victory has sent celebrations across the state as the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) now holds the ace for the pary’s victory in the next year’s election.
“The court has declared Kayode Fayemi the rightful governor after sacking Segun Oni of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who was originally declared winner of the 2007 polls” claimed Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN’s national Secretary.
“I can confirm to you that we have won the appeal and the court has declared Fayemi the governor of Ekiti state,” Mohammed said by telephone from Ilorin, capital of central Kwara state where the court hearings took place.
Nigeria is preparing for presidential, parliamentary and state governorship elections — including in Ekiti — next April and is hoping to avoid the chaos of the 2007 polls, which had been acknowledged world-wide as having been marred by intimidation, vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing they were declared not credible by observers.
The confusion led to months — and in the case of Ekiti, years — of legal wrangling.
Oni is one of around a dozen PDP candidates who were declared winners of state governorship polls in 2007 but whose victories were later annulled by the courts. Many of the PDP candidates then went on to win re-runs.
Fayemi had previously won his challenge against Oni at a lower court, but rather than declare him winner, it ordered a re-run of the vote in some districts. The results again showed that Fayemi lost, prompting him to launch the appeal.
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