BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN—AN Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan, Monday up-turned the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal that confirmed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Hosea Agboola, winner of the election for Oyo North Senatorial District.

The appellate court faulted judgment of the lower tribunal and ordered the retrial of the petition by a fresh panel to be set up by the President of the Court of Appeal.

The appeal was filed by the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Dr. Wale Okediran alleging that Agboola’s election into the Senate did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and should be nullified.

The three-man panel of the court, Justices Stanley Alagoa, Modupe Fasanmi and Joseph Ikyegh held unanimously that the lower tribunal erred in dismissing Dr. Okediran’s petition because the appellant/petitioner requested for pre-hearing notice out of time.

It stated that the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to determine the interlocutory application jointly with the substantive petition.

According to the court, the issue before the tribunal was whether the petitioner filed application for pre-hearing notice or not.

The Presiding justice said, “I now remit the petition back to the tribunal to be heard by a fresh panel to be re-constituted by the President of Court of Appeal”.

Dr. Okediran and his counsel, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, commended the panel for what they called a sound judgment.

The candidate of the ACN, Okediran said: “This time, I will get my mandate that people have given me at the lower court. I am sure of victory because the first tribunal did what was wrong in its judgment against me. I am happy that the appellate court has redressed the mistake”.

In a related development, the petition filed by Oyebisi Ilaka of Accord Party against Senator Ayo Adeseun of the ACN representing Oyo Central was dismissed by the election petition tribunal.

While dismissing the petition, the panel led by Justice Frank Chukwuemeka Nwizu, said the petition was addressed to an unknown tribunal.

Other members of the panel are: Justice Alaba Omolaye and Kadi Muhammed Alkali.

The tribunal said it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case because it was referred to governorship and legislative election tribunal.

Earlier, Ilaka had amended the original petition and was allowed by the tribunal to amend his petition with proper heading.

But, Akeredolu filed an appeal against this and the Appeal Court in its ruling said it was wrong for the tribunal to have allowed Ilaka to amend it.