Tribunal Dismisses Akinlabi’s Petition, Upholds Skimeh’s Re-election

The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, siting, in Ibadan, has declared Akeem Adeyemi as the winner of the 2023 House of Representatives’ election in Oyo federal constituency.

Skimeh, as the son of departed late Ọba Lamidi Adeyemi, Alaafin of Oyo, is popularly, had defeated other contestants to secure a third consecutive win in the 2023 election.

Kamil Akinlabi, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who is a two-term former member of the green chambers, had dragged Adeyemi to court, alleging among other things, irregularities and over-voting in 11 out of the 561 polling units across Oyo Federal Constituency. He also also alleged non-compliance with the usage of the BVAS machine.

But giving its judgement, the three-man panel, averred that the petitioner and his party failed to prove their case on all the allegations. It also said that petition is unsubstantiated, lacking merit and cannot hold.

On whether there was overvoting, the panel submitted that “the scores of the petitioner tendered by petitioner shows no excess votes or does not show any invalid votes.”

“All form do not show any irregularities thus from the all evidences, the difference is not in any way above PVC issuance in respect of the allegations. We did not find any irregularities

”Ten candidates contested this elections and none of the petitioner’s evidences showed over-voting. This petitioner’s evidences are quite pathetic because there was no prove of over-voting in all the 11 polling units alleged or claimed because votes were counted and announced as expected.”