by Kolapo Olapoju

Iyiola Omisore has lost his bid to unseat Rauf Aregbesola as the governor of Osun state.

An election tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, seeking to upturn the outcome of the governorship election held in the state on August 9, 2014.

The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal headed by Justice Elizabeth Ipejime, sitting at the High Court in Osogbo, ruled on Friday, February 6, that Aregbesola was the legitimate winner of the contest.

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner of the election held on 9 August, 2014.

Aregbesola defeated the PDP candidate during the polls with 394,684 votes to 292,747 votes, but Omisore had on August 29 petitioned the Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the victory of Aregbesola.

In its ruling, the tribunal stated that the witnesses called by the petitioner did not provide compelling evidence to validate the petitioner’s claim of corrupt practices during the election.

According to the tribunal, there was also nothing to show that the election was conducted without substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime‎, said: “The testimonies of these witnesses are unsatisfactory and PDP forensic analyst did not show that ballot papers were not used accordingly.”

“As such, their testimonies failed to support their claims. None of them gave evidence on the issue of multiple voting, which they earlier claimed. The panel also held that issue of multiple voting was not found in his examination. On allegations of over-voting, no single evidence of over voting was proved. Similarly, on the allegations that O’Yes was used as INEC officials, there is no such evidence.”

Kolapo Olapoju