Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Tuesday reiterated to the court that the January 27 Ekiti State governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress, APC, which it monitored was free, fair and credible.
INEC was represented by its Head of Legal Unit, Francis Lawal who stood in court as the commission’s prime witness and the only witness called by the defendants.
Lawal told the court that he monitored the primary election of APC in Ekiti North along with two other INEC officials and could attest to the credibility and fairness of the election.
The INEC witness affirmed that he was also in Ado, the state capital later in the evening where he witnessed the chairman of the said primary election committee, Jigawa State Governor Muhammad Badaru declared Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji as the winner with the highest number of votes polled.
It would be recalled that an aspirant at the election, Kayode Ojo, is challenging the result in court for what he termed “gross irregularities” conducted by people who, though members of the party, were of questionable integrity. This he could not back up with any evidence.
Ojo had earlier said no election was held only to change gear to say that he won based on the number of valid votes, though he did not state whether or not he participated in the election. He only said he bought both the expression of interest and nomination forms.
Ojo also failed to tell the court the number votes he or any other aspirant scored. Neither did he state the number of invalid votes. Rather he said the result had not been released as at the time he was filing the case, and only had to rely on the ones he saw being posted online.
With both the complainant and defendants closing their cases, the court has adjourned sitting till Friday 29, 2022 for the adoption of the final address.
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