…PDP cannot change the truth God and Court have affirmed;
…I won the election —-Obaseki
…We will head to Supreme Court —PDP
…PDP died in sin and will never resurrect —Oshiomhole

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

THE Appeal Court sitting in Benin, yesterday affirmed the election of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state after dismissing the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the September 28, 2016 governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

The five man Appeal panel led by Justice M.B Dongban-Mensem, in a unanimous decision, described Ize-Iyamu’s appeal as unmeritorious. The appellate court agreed with the Edo state Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Ahmed Badamasi which returned Obaseki as governor of Edo state, saying that Ize-Iyamu and the PDP failed to prove before the trial court why Obaseki’s victory should be upturned.

Other members of the panel are Justices S. Tom Yakub, M.O. Bolaji-Yusuf, U.A. Ogakwu and Mohammed Mustapha. The judgment of the appellate court elicited thunderous celebration in Benin City yesterday, as Obaseki, and the immediate past governor of the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole attributed the victory to God and victory for the state.

Ize-Iyamu, Obaseki and Oshiomhole

It will be recalled that the Edo state Election petition tribunal had on April 14, 2017 upheld the election of Obaseki as governor of the state after dismissing PDP’s petition for lack of evidence.  Ize-Iyamu, who was not satisfied with the judgement, alongside other appellants ran to the Appellate court raising 41 grounds of appeal and nine issues for determination, praying the court to determine whether the trial Tribunal was correct in its approach in considering and dismissing their case considering the defence of the respondents.

They prayed the court to allow the appeal, upturn the judgement of the Tribunal and grant the main reliefs sought pursuant to Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act.  However, counsel to Ize-Iyamu led by Yusuf Ali (SAN) and that of Obaseki led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), argued their briefs on May 30th, 2017. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) led the APC legal team while Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN)  represented INEC.

When the five-man panel entered into the court at exactly 9:35am, the presiding judge, Justice M.B.Dongban-Mensem delegated the second female Judge, Justice U.A.Ogakwu to read the judgement.

In its judgement, the appellate court held that the appeal brought before it by Ize-Iyamu has two major issues: “One, whether the tribunal properly evaluated the evidence provided to it and gave correct value to it. Two, whether considering the entire evidence before the tribunal, the tribunal was right in declaring that the Appellants failed to prove their petition.

“Separate objections were filed by the second (Obaseki) and third (APC) respondents respectively. All the objections were over ruled”.

The court declared that: “At the end, we found that the conclusion of the tribunal was unassailable. The tribunal carried out a painstaking, detailed and clear considerations of all aspects of the Appellant’s case. Having dealt with the issues raised by the Appellants, I found this application unmeritorious and hereby dismissed and parties should bear their own cost”.

Ruling on the cross appeal filed by Obaseki and APC which faulted the lower tribunal for allowing the counting of ballot papers in the court, the appellate court while dismissing the cross appeal, declared that the trial court  was right, saying “I think it will be unfair to expect the trial tribunal to deny the Appellant fair hearing.

“All these were done to avoid miscarriage of justice. It allows parties to ventilate their grievances in election petition without dismissing the petitions. The Cross Appeal failed for lack of merit and it is dismissed. Parties should bear their respective cost”.

Reacting to the judgement, Obaseki asserted, “I had no doubts in my mind that, giving the quality of the  judiciary we had,  it would go straight to the matter. One thing you must always know is that the truth never changes. I won the election. God has affirmed that I won the election; the court has now affirmed that I won the election. No matter how hard they (PDP) try, they cannot change the truth. I am sure they will appeal, we will meet at the Supreme Court and it will be the same verdict.”

“I thank Edo people for their patience with us. We want to assure them that we are not distracted and we will continue on our path to recovery, on our path to progress .

On his part, Ize-Iyamu said he was expecting the details of the judgement and will decide the next line of action after studying it with his Counsel. However, the state chairman of the APC, Chief Dan Orbih, said “we have started the move so we will get to the end, which is the Supreme Court”.

Oshiomhole stated that “the first time I said that PDP’s petition was like the petition filed by Mama Akara, they tried to twist it. Now if you listen to the judgement you will see that the Court of Appeal even had more harsh words for them that the finding of the tribunal was unassailable, so they did not have to beat around the bush. This is clear and I just hope that the PDP can understand that their rigging machine that was dismantled in 2007, they can’t return it and our people can never welcome them back.

“I think it is now for Godwin to concentrate fully, happily he is doing very well and now with this clarity of his position we have no doubt that he won the election. Even if the PDP wants to go to the world court we are ready. But the government will not be distracted and Edo people can be reassured that they voted wisely and they are getting the dividends of democracy that they voted for. I am excited.

“The only thing is that we have to review the rules of the court in a manner that when a man has no case and files a fictitious petition he should be asked to pay for the time wasted by the judges and others, so that we will have penalties for frivolities. Like I said he who dies in sin can never resurrect and the PDP died in sin so they will never resurrect” he stated.