The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Oyo South senatorial district, Joseph Tegbe, filed a petition with the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which is located in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, challenging Senator Sharafadeen Alli of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s election victory.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that Alli had won the election that was held on February 25, 2023, on Saturday.
Tegbe received 92,481 votes, compared to 111,513 votes for Alli.
At the election petition tribunal, Tegbe then filed a petition contesting Alli’s victory after claiming he was dissatisfied with the results.
Tegbe requested that the three-person tribunal, presided over by Justice A. M. Yakubu, order a new election. He said that Alli had broken electoral law by not receiving the majority of valid votes, which prevented her from winning the race.
The panel, however, upheld Alli’s election victory on Wednesday. Alli is a former secretary for the Oyo State Government.
According to OBASANJO NEWS24, the tribunal denied Tegbe’s appeal and mandated that he pay the three respondents—Alli, the APC, and INEC—a sum of N500,000 each.
The tribunal determined that the majority of PDP poll workers, who served as election witnesses, did not have signatures that matched those on any paperwork they signed at their polling places or on any remarks they made under oath.
The panel further noted that the witnesses had not offered any forms of identification, such as identity cards, that may have demonstrated their employment as PDP poll workers on election day.
The panel emphasised that in order to prove overvoting, the petitioners did not rely on the voter list.
The panel further stated that the petitioners’ evidence was not reliable.
The petition was rejected by the tribunal, which stated that the petitioners “failed to present cogent, reliable, and compelling evidence sufficient to affect the results of the poll as declared by INEC.”
