A special panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday affirmed the decision of the Ogun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which struck out all allegations of vote-buying and voter inducement made by the Ogun State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its guber candidate, Ladi Adebutu made against Governor Dapo Abiodun and APC.
The Court, in its lead judgment read by Justice MB Idris, also upheld another decision of the tribunal which confirmed the validity of the defence filed by Governor Dapo Abiodun.
Adebutu and the PDP had on May 22, filed a reply to the defence by Governor Abiodun.
In the said reply, Adebutu and PDP alleged, for the first time, that Governor Abiodun and APC bought votes in the March 18 2023 Ogun State gubernatorial elections.
When Governor Abiodun received Adebutu’s reply, the Governor’s lawyers filed an application asking the Tribunal to strike out the reply in its entirety or in the alternative, to strike out offending paragraphs from that reply.
The Governor’s lawyers argued that the reply filed by Adebutu and PDP contravened Paragraph 16(1)(a & b) of the Schedule to the Electoral Act and the rules of court pleadings.
The Tribunal agreed with the Governor’s lawyers and struck out the entire reply filed by Adebutu and PDP.
It was established before the panel that the allegation made by Adebutu and PDP was an after thought which was hastily put together after Governor Abiodun made weighty allegations backed up with police investigation report establishing that Adebutu and PDP bought votes during the elections in his defence.
In the ruling, the Court of Appeal confirmed that all allegations of vote-buying in Adebutu’s Reply were incompetent and as such, the Court struck out paragraphs 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 of the Reply leaving some few hollow paragraphs.
Also, the Court of Appeal threw out the entire appeal filed by Adebutu and PDP against the decision of the Ogun State Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the validity of Governor Abiodun’s defence.
