The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti state, Engr. Segun Oni, has approached the state’s election petition tribunal to challenge outcome of poll. The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, emerged the winner of the election. The SDP candidate was at the premises of the Ekiti State High Court, Ado-Ekiti on Thursday evening to submit petitions challenging the victory of the APC candidate. Oni said that he was challenging the outcome of the election because the exercise was fraught with irregularities to his disadvantage. He added that he and his party’s leadership decided to approach the election tribunal to reclaim mandate freely given to them by vast majority of Ekiti people.
He said, “I’m here this evening to submit my petition in accordance to law and we are doing this to defend the sanctity of the electoral system. I’m challenging the election result because I believe that I won.” But, an APC chieftain and former Deputy Speaker, Chief Taiwo Olatunbosun, said that the decision of the SDP candidate to challenge Oyebanji’s victory in Court was a welcome development.
In a telephone chat with our reporter on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital Olatunbosun, said there was no cause for alarm as the petition was doomed to fail because the poll was adjudged by international and domestic observers to be freest, fairest and most credible in the state’s electoral history. “It is now a matter of litigation and the electoral process provided for that. But I can assure you that our legal team would do a clinical defense of the issues raised in their purported petition,” he said.