Time Test of the Ondo Election Tribunal! November 17, 2008 |  Ademola Juwon (Archives)

Ondo Governorship Election Tribunal: This Judgement Will Not Stand

As expected, the Ondo State Election Tribunal judgement of the Election Petitions has elicited a lot of reactions from well meaning indigenes and residents of Ondo State who saw it as a departure from the normal cause of justice and an example of how an inconsequential minority can attempt to take control of the soul of a state through foul means.

Those who have expressed outrage across the land obviously have cause to cry foul because the judgment as delivered lacked all ingredients that such a landmark verdict that sought to determine the political fate of a people should have.

Such is the shock and outrage that people are beginning to express doubts about the ability of the judiciary to really provide the necessary protection to our country’s fledging democracy from the grip of those who are desperate to take over the reign of authority by hook or crook.

I am at a loss as to how the Tribunal has attempted to subvert the genuine expression of the people of this state in the ability and capability of Governor Agagu on that fateful day with thousands of our compatriots trooping out to endorse the second term bid of the Governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite the atmosphere of fear and despondency created by the Labour Party, a new entrant into the state politics that chose violence as a way of life.

The atmosphere of fear was so pervasive that it took extra effort on the part of the Governor, a peace loving man, whose intervention and application of Solomonic wisdom, have removed the state from the list of crisis- ridden states of the federation

So when the people trooped out on that day to endorse the Agagu candidacy, they were doing it with a high sense of history because not only had the state enjoyed unparallel peace, the kind of developmental strides that were recorded in Agagu’s first term were unprecedented.

And it is shocking, to say the least, that the decision of the majority of the people of this state, as expressed in their ballot for the Governor, could be thrown out like that by the tribunal even when denying them the chance to have an opportunity of expressing their political wishes.

Every discerning observer of events since the beginning of litigation over this matter had expected that Agagu and the PDP, not being the organisers of the election, could not be made to suffer for whatever error that might have been noted in the conduct of the polls.

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the body legally constituted for the purpose of conducting the election. It was the body responsible for the compilation of voters register and the recruitment and training of ad-hoc staff for the purpose of conducting the election. INEC has said that it complied substantially with the provision of the Electoral Act.

It is pertinent to state here that the tribunal in earlier judgements had declared the PDP members in the House of Assembly representing Irele, Odigbo I, Ile-Oluji/ Oke –Igbo Akoko north east and Akoko north west duly elected.in a strange twist, the same tribunal declared that there was no gubernatorial election in those local governments. This becomes ridiculous giving the fact that both the House of Assembly and the gubernatorial elections took place the same day, at the same venues, conducted by the same electoral body, using the same personnel, under the same atmosphere and the same guidelines. How can the tribunal, in good conscience, now turn round to say that gubernatorial election did not take place in all these areas?

For the tribunal to annul the poll in a section of the state without giving the people an opportunity of redress is totally against the tenets of participatory democracy that we pray that our democratic experiment should bestow on our people.

Even when one looks at the manner of delivery of the judgement which failed to explore all the issues raised in the petition to the level of explanations without reasonable doubt, more questions are begging for answers.

For one, the judgement was hurriedly read in a manner that creates suspicion that the panel members had one or two things to hide, and their failure to make the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement available, five days after its delivery strengthens that fact.

The people of Ondo State and other people across the country were also denied the chance of listening to the judgement and making deductions of the submissions when the tribunal ordered the stoppage of the live broadcast few minutes of commencement unlike what obtained in all other tribunals.

Could there be some hidden reasons why the tribunal wanted to hide its decisions from public scrutiny and deny the litigants, especially the respondents from having access to it.

This judgement will not STAND.