Supreme Court Affirm’s Mimiko’s Victory

 

Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the victory of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party at the October 2012 governorship election conducted in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The duo of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria’s candidate and that of the Peoples Democratic Party had approached the apex court where they sought for the cancellation of that election on the ground that the voter’s registrar used for that election was filled with multiple entry of voters names and that the register was not displayed in accordance with the provision of the Electoral Act.

The court in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Mary Peter – Odili, held that the effect of the use of that register on the result of the election was not proven by the contenders and that they failed in establishing the effect, if any, on the result of the election. The court noted that no evidence was adduced by Chief Wole Oke and Rotimi Akeredolu both of PDP and ACN respectively, to show that those voters whose names appeared multiple times in the register voted multiple times in that election.

Consequently, their appeals were dismissed for lacking in merit while the decisions of the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal which had earlier upheld that election result were upheld by the apex court.