The National Assembly and State Houses Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital, has affirmed the election of Senator Oluremi Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for Lagos Central.
The three-man tribunal, led by Justice Kunaza Hamidu, in a seven-hour judgment delivered yesterday, held that the petition filed by Chief Adesunbo Onitiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the election of Senator Tinubu did not establish any prima facie case against her.
Other members of the tribunal are Justices W. R. Olamide and S. I. Okpara.
“The petition lacks merit and is hereby dismissed. The declaration of Senator Oluremi Tinubu by INEC as the winner of February 23 National Assembly election is hereby affirmed,” the tribunal declared.
Onitiri had filed a petition against the victory of Senator Tinubu and her declaration by INEC.
The PDP candidate challenged the result of the Lagos Central Senatorial District election for alleged irregularities.
The APC and Independent National Election Commission (INEC) are second and third respondents.
Onitiri alleged that INEC wrongly declared Senator Tinubu as the winner of the polls with 131,725 votes, while he was said to have scored 89,107 votes.
He claimed that the INEC ought to have declared him (Onitiri) the winner of the election instead of Senator Tinubu, claiming that he scored the highest lawful votes cast in the election.
In a petition filed before the tribunal on his behalf by his counsel, Onome Akpeneye, the PDP candidate alleged that the results declared by the INEC were fraught with vote-buying, violence, over-voting, inducement of voters with monetary and material gains, campaigning and lobbying voters on the day of the election.
Other irregularities he stated in his petition, include non-accreditation and/or improper accreditation of voters by INEC officials, intimidation and arrest of his supporters and poll agents, as well as the instigation of electoral violence by the agents of the first respondent.
Onitiri claimed that apart from those irregularities, there were irreconcilable entries in the result declared and the number of votes recorded in favor of Senator Tinubu by INEC in forms EC8A and EC8B.