Ogun Governor Tussle: Supreme Court slates Friday for judgement

Abuja – The Supreme Court has fixed Friday to deliver judgement on an appeal that seeks to nullify the election of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, are praying the apex court to set aside the concurrent verdict of the Court of Appeal and the Ogun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the case they filed to challenge the declaration of Governor Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the gubernatorial poll that was held in the state on March 18, 2023.

A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro, okayed the electoral dispute for judgement after all the parties adopted their briefs of argument.

Adebutu is asking the court to set aside the election because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially cancelled elections in 99 polling units and consequently ordered that fresh elections, be conducted in those polling units.

The electoral body then went ahead to declare Abiodun the winner of the March 2023 election, disregarding the margin of the vote.

Governor Dapo Abiodun had won the election with 13,000 votes and the votes from the cancelled polling units were 44,000

Recall that on November, the court of appeal in Lagos affirmed the victory of Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, in the March 18 election. The appellate court, in a split decision, on November 24 dismissed the petition filed by Ladi Adebutu, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the election.

Also, in September 2023, the Ogun governorship election petition tribunal upheld the victory of Abiodun at the poll.