The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Osun guber election

  • PDP rejects inclusion of Justice Oyewole in Osun guber election appeal panel

    The national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the inclusion of Justice Joseph Oyewole as member of the Osun State governorship election appeal tribunal.

    According to the PDP, Justice Oyewole has strong connections with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is an interested party in the case under appeal.

    At a media briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party said it has petitioned the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa.

    The PDP had stated in the petition that there was clear likelihood of Justice Oyewole being bias against its candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke and his party, PDP.

    The election petition tribunal had earlier voided the election of Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the APC who won the 2018 Osun governorship poll and ordered the immediate swearing-in of Adeleke as winner of the election.

    Other grounds on which the PDP rejected Justice Oyewole’s inclusion in the appeal panel, as stated by Ologbondiyan are:

    “Hon. Justice Oyewole (JCA) is an indigene of Osun state and he had served as a High Court Judge of Lagos state and had thus served under the administration of Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, (the national leader of the APC) while he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos State.

    “When the seat of the Chief Judge of Osun State became vacant, some years back, upon the retirement of Hon. Justice G.O Ojo, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu insisted on having his anointed candidate, Hon Justice J.O.K Oyewole, on the Judiciary of Osun State at all cost.

    “It will be recalled that it took the courageous intervention of the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Murktar to prevail that the most senior judge of Osun state judiciary should be so appointed.

    “When a seat became vacant at the Court of Appeal, the name of Hon. Justice Oyewole was pushed forward by Senator Tinubu, using the slot of Osun State and thus, Justice Oyewole became Justice of the Court of Appeal.

    “It is therefore a fact known to us and members of the public that Hon. Justice Oyewole has a strong connection with the APC and its leader, Senator Ahmed Tinubu. As such he should not sit as a panel member for a governorship election dispute between the PDP and the APC.

    “Moreover, Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole is from Osun state. The instant appeal is over the decision of the Osun state Governorship Tribunal. Given his connections with the APC. It will be most unsafe to allow Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole to sit on the Appeal Panel. We are not assured that justice will be done with Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole as a member of the Panel.

    “As a party, we do not have confidence in Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole. So the PDP vehemently objects to his inclusion, as he is likely to be biased against our party and our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke”.

    The PDP called on the President of the Court of Appeal to immediately replace Justice Oyewole with another justice of the Court of Appeal, who has no affiliation with Osun state. There are over 90 eminent Justices of the Court of Appeal.

    “Our party and candidate hold that justice must not only be done, but also manifestly seen to be done in this matter. Indeed, an insistence on Hon. Justice J.O.K Oyewole’s inclusion in the Appeal Panel may confirm our fears that his name could have been deliberately included so that he can carry out a special assignment against our candidate and the party in the appeal”, the PDP added.

  • Osun Guber Election: Untangling the law

    On Sunday, September 23, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)-appointed Returning Officer (RO) for the September 22 Osun State gubernatorial election, Professor J.A. Fuwape, refused to make a return of any candidate as the validly elected governor of Osun State. According to INEC, the refusal to make a return was because the margin of win between the two leading candidates at the election was lesser than the number of registered voters in seven polling units across four Local Government Areas (LGAs) where the elections either did not hold, or was cancelled because of card reader failure, over-voting and/or disruptions. The RO decided that it was impossible to make a return of a winner until a supplementary election is conducted in the polling units affected.

    Expectedly, INEC’s decision has been greeted with mixed reactions by politicians and citizens within and outside Osun State. The two leading political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have expressed contrasting views on the legality and constitutionality of the decision reached by INEC.

    For legal practitioners and participants in the political arena, the decision by INEC again brings to the fore the need to carefully scrutinise this latest decision against the parameters set by the various laws governing our electoral process, especially the constitution and the Electoral Act. This is important especially because this is not the first time that INEC would declare an election inconclusive. Notably, in November 2015, it declared the election to the office of governor of Kogi State inconclusive for the exact same reason it has adduced in Osun State. No two cases are ever alike. Hence, this is an attempt to clarify the seeming conundrum created by this ‘inconclusive election’ in light of extant laws governing our electoral process.

    INEC’s decision raises some pertinent issues of law, to wit; how is a person elected to the office of governor under the constitution? Did a winner emerge in Osun State as contemplated by the constitution? When is an election concluded?

    Section 179 of the constitution deals squarely with election to the office of governor of a state and by Section 179(2)(a) and (b), a person is elected as governor if he scores the highest number of votes cast at the election, and in addition, he obtains one – quarter of the votes cast in two – thirds all the local government areas in that state. This is all that the constitution says about how a person is to emerge as elected to the office of governor. No more, no less. The meaning of this to Osun State is that the candidate who scored the highest vote in Osun State and who received one – quarter of the votes cast in two – thirds of all the local government areas in Osun State is the person who should be returned as governor of the state.

    This is central to this discourse; for if Section 179(2)(a) and (b) was applicable, then going by the election results announced so far by INEC in Osun State, Senator Adeleke has the highest votes and in respect of Section 179(2)(b), it is taken as a given he was able to garner one – quarter of the votes cast in two – thirds (20 LGAs) of the 30 local government areas in Osun State.

    If this is taken as the case (as it appears to be at first), then INEC’s decision that the election was inconclusive for the reasons given would have breached the constitution and the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) in INEC v. Musa (2003) 3 NWLR (Pt. 806) 72 at 157 by purporting to issue directives in its Manual (Chapter 3, paragraph 3.11, step 14 of the Manual for Election Officials) which supplement and effectively nullify Section 179(2)(a) and (b) of the Constitution without any specific constitutional permission in that wise. In addition, if this view is preferred, INEC would be undercutting the fundamental principle of substantial inclusion of the electorate on which the electoral system of democracies all over the world is based. One would easily agree that the system is tilted towards inclusion as far as is possible. On the other hand, if Section 179(2)(a) and (b) was not applicable as at Saturday, INEC’s refusal to make a return cannot be faulted.

    In order to determine whether or not Section 179(2)(a) and (b) of the constitution was applicable on  Saturday, it is necessary to determine whether the election had been concluded on Saturday. In other words, when is an election concluded? First, it must be mentioned that an election is a process and not an event and that the process spans a couple of days does not change this fact. The implication of this is that until the process of election is completed, the application of Section 179(2)(a) and (b) does not even arise. In effect, only a completed (concluded) election can trigger Section 179(2)(a) and (b) and it is INEC that can determine when this is so. This much was affirmed by the SC in Faleke v INEC (2016) 18 NWLR (Pt. 1543) 61 at 162. This position naturally leads to the question; when is an election concluded?

    In my opinion, an election is only concluded in respective polling units in a constituency when all eligible voters have had reasonable opportunity to cast their votes. Thus, to the extent that a segment of the voters in Osun State have not been given this opportunity, it cannot be validly said that the election has been concluded. For instance, according to INEC’s press release on the election, no voting took place in one polling unit in Osogbo LGA. This polling unit alone has 884 voters. What this means is that 884 voters in these units have not been given opportunity to cast their vote and their votes alone exceeds the margin of win by a mile.  Although, in my view, the decision of the SC in Faleke v INEC (supra)) produced unjust consequences, same provides justification for this position because the SC decided that until the supplementary election in that case was held (to allow a segment of the electorate cast their vote), the main election was inchoate.

    The argument that the conditions set out in Section 179 were met on Saturday is not without its own complications. First, it would mean that once these conditions are purportedly met (and how this can be ascertained in the absence of declaration to that effect by INEC is itself another problem), INEC must terminate any further process. This would entrench football’s harsh Golden Goal rule in our electoral system with the implication that that a supplementary election or even further collation of results in the main election (no matter how pivotal) would be pointless since the threshold of Section 179 would have been crossed. It is doubtful that this was the intent of the framers of the Constitution.

    In this regard, I must emphasize that the conditions in Section 179(2)(a) and (b), especially (b), are predicated on receiving a fraction of all the votes cast and not some. The votes recorded on Saturday were not all the votes but some. This provides further justification for the position that Section 179(2)(a) and (b) only applies to a concluded election and not otherwise.  

    It is safe to say that one of the philosophical pillars of our electoral process, at least in theory, is that of inclusion of all eligible voters. Proceeding from this basis, it would be contrary to the spirit and tenor of our laws to decide the outcome of an election at the stage when polling is still in progress and all voters have not been presented with reasonable opportunity to cast their votes. Although the law does not envisage that every voter must vote but the intention is to capture as many voters as possible. Therefore, the law must be interpreted to produce this outcome and not otherwise.

    This is not the end, even as we gear up for the 2019 general elections more controversial situations are sure to arise.

    • Adetomiwa a legal practitioner writes from Lagos.

  • Osun guber election: INEC to employ over 15,000 ad-hoc staff

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osun said it would employ over 15,000 ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the Sept. 22 governorship election.

    Mr Olusegun Agbaje, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun, made the disclosure on Thursday during a stakeholders meeting with political party leaders in Osogbo.

    Read Also:National Assembly to reconvene for INEC’s budget

    He told the stakeholders that the commission would do everything possible to conduct a free and fair election in the state.

    Agbaje said the commission it had already recruited over 14,000 out of the over 15,000 ad-hoc staff needed for the election.

    He said the commission had engaged different ad-hoc staff sources such as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), federal establishments and tertiary institutions in the state.

    ‘‘As we speak, we have sourced over 90 per cent of the ad-hoc staff that would participate in the conduct of the election.

    ‘‘NYSC management promised us over 8,000 of their youth corps, which will form the large chunk of our ad-hoc staff.

    ‘‘The Obafemi Awolowo University has provided us with 3,000 personnel/students, while Federal Polytechnic, Ede has assured us of 2,000 personnel plus students out which 1,500 has been received.

    ‘‘The over 70 other federal establishments in the state would also be providing us with 1,000 of their members who will participate in the conduct of the election,’’ he said.

    Agbaje, however, implored the 48 political parties that would take part in the election to advise the electorate to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the election.

    He said the commission had been carrying out voter education and public enlightenment campaigns, stressing that many PVCs were yet to be collected by registered voters.

    He said about 540,658 PVCs were still with the commission and enjoined voters in the state to come out and collect their PVCs.

    NAN

     

  • Osun guber election: Aspirant pledges good governance

    A frontline contender for the governorship seat of Osun State in the forthcoming election in the state, Elder George Tunde Adedeji,  has released his manifesto which is a four- cardinal programme.

    The programme prioritises: agriculture, education, health and human resources development and empowerment of citizenry, amongst others.

    On agriculture, he said: “My vision is to make Osun the food basket and banish hunger totally. We will prioritise agriculture; revive the old and existing agricultural settlements across the state; empower the farmers with financial and agricultural tools, including insecticides and pesticides; set up commodity exchange for regulation and coordination of agricultural products; assist in establishing a network of multipurpose cooperative society and encourage setting up of agroindustry and agribusiness in all the previously mapped-out nine industrial estates in the state.

    Adedeji’s vision for education, according to the manifesto, is “to encourage technical and skilled-based education from the primary school level to the tertiary level to engender multiplier effects.

    On health services, he intends “to make health services available, affordable and comprehensively standard; make primary health care a priority; rehabilitate and equip all our health centres with modern facilitates, among other projects”.

    Another sector that the aspirant promises would engage the government attention is human resources development and empowerment of citizenry.

    Furthermore, Adedeji would like to implement a comprehensive empowerment policy, “to make our people to be self-reliant and self-sustaining for better living.”

    The technocrat and seasoned politician also pledged to make difference in the lives of the people in the following areas: road infrastructural facilities; culture and tourism; and security.

    Elder Adedeji in the document tagged, My Pledge with the People of  Osun, says, “if given the mandate to serve you, I intend to lead an all-inclusive government.