Call for judicial review will fail, Olujimi mocks Adeyeye

Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti

 

The Senator, representing Ekiti South Senatorial District on the platform of the People Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Biodun Olujimi on Wednesday derided Prince Adedayo Adeyeye over a petition sent to the Appeal Court President, Justice Binta Bulkachuwa, seeking review of the judgement sacking him.

Olujimi boasted that Adeyeye would always lose to her party even if it took the petition to the international court for judicial review, since the ruling party had no evidence to substantiate his petition.

The Appeal court, in its judgement of November 2019, validated the outcome of the Justice Danladi Adeck-led Election Petition Tribunal, which ousted Adeyeye of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and declared Olujimi the actual winner of the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeyeye the winner of the February 23, 2019 Senatorial election, following which Olujimi, who was occupying the seat then approached the court and got favourable verdict.

Stunned by the judgement, Adeyeye sent a petition to the Appeal Court President, Justice Binta Bulkachuwa, seeking review of the judgement, he described as error-ridden, in the mathematical computation of the results.

Adeyeye on Tuesday while featuring on a programme tagged ‘Journalists Hangouts,’ on Television Continental (TVC) in Lagos, which was monitored in Ado Ekiti, by our correspondent, insisted his mandate was stolen.

Read Also: Adeyeye, Olujimi and battle for Ekiti South

He delved extensively on the review being sought, which bordered on the reversal of the appeal court judgement, describing the verdict as a travesty and abrasion of the rule of law.

He said: “When you find out that an election is fraught with irregularities and of course my election is never fraught with irregularities, the remedy that is available is already in section 140 sub-section 2 of the electoral act.

“They went against that , which is that you don’t declare any winner and awarded victory to her.

“All you will say is to go for a rerun election but they went as far as to declare a winner because they know if they conduct this election hundred times, I will always win.

“My opponent is afraid including her conspirators that I will always win anytime any day. If they declare another election now, I will win with a larger margin, that is the truth.

“They have disenfranchised the entire people of Ekiti South and it is not fair to them. They know who they voted for, go there and do any research. I am fighting now not for myself but for the people.

“The election is clean and I have told you the mathematical impossibilities that are contain in that judgement like adding 37 and one to be 71 instead of 38.

“They should have asked at least another election but they know if they hold this election in many times I will always win”, he stated.

But on Wednesday, while countering the position canvassed by Adeyeye that he got undeserved and perverted justice, Olujimi in a chat with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, said Adeyeye’s calls for judicial review will fail, describing it as a mere academic excercise.

She wondered why Adeyeye decided to embark on academic excercise, having lost at both Tribunal and Appeal courts, insisting that she was duly elected by the electorate.

The Senator said: “Does he want the tribunal to be reconstituted for him? After all he had representation of eminently qualified lawyers at both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal. Despite that, he got 3-0”.

Olujimi added: “All the judges at the tribunal agreed that I won the election. At the appellate court I also scored three – zero.

“If he was sleeping at the Tribunal, was he also sleeping at the appeal? Is he asking them to reconstitute a statute barred tribunal for him or what is he saying.

“Has he gone to court or is just writing a frivolous petition? Is he saying that six judges don’t know what they were doing?

“I have tried not to speak about it because I know he is hurt and injured but when you are running after a thing and you don’t get at it, you take a rest. He is not the only one that lost election at the tribunal,” she said.