The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Governor Ayo Fayose of
Ekiti state and dismissed the petition against
him. In the unanimous decision by the seven-man panel led by Justice John
Fabiyi, the Supreme Court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of
Appeal and the Ekiti State Governorship Election Tribunal, which had
both ruled earlier that the petition challenging Fayose’s victory lacked
merit.
Delivering judgement, the court held that while impeachment
was not a ground of disqualification from contesting as governor, the panel which recommended
Fayose for impeachment on October 16, 2006, was illegally and
unconstitutionally constituted.
The court also ruled that allegations of
certificate forgery is not substantive as the HND certificate Fayose
presented when he signified interest to run for Governor was genuinely
earned and was awarded to him. Regarding allegations of the use of the
military by Fayose to intimidate APC supporters during the June 2014
governorship election, the Supreme Court ruled that the Chief of Defence
Staff and the Inspector-General of Police, joined as 4th and 5th
defendants in the case were not necessary parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment