The joy and celebration that followed the declaration of Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro, son of Musiliu Obanikoro and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2007 governorship election in Lagos State and immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana, was cut short on Thursday when a Lagos State Appeal Tribunal pronounced Action Congress of Nigeria’s Adewale Adeniji as the winner of the Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area
A tribunal had earlier declared Ibrahim Obanikoro as the authentic winner of the election held in October 2011, resulting in an appeal filed by the ACN.
Delivering the judgement, which lasted more than an hour, Samuel Candide-Johnson asked the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to Mr. Adeniji, hinging his judgement on “an unpardonable blunder” on the part of the PDP, which sought to withdraw a motion for extension of time in the case.
LASIEC had rushed to court for a preliminary objection to the earlier judgement that declared Obanikoro as winner of the election, but his counsel contested the filed preliminary objection, thereby abandoning his client’s motion for an order of enlargement of time.
This was one of the grounds upon which the five-man Appeal Tribunal led by Justice Opeyemi Oke upturned the decision of the lower tribunal.
The second ground was that the lower tribunal ought not to have delivered judgement in the case after 30 days since it was time-bound. According to the Appeal Tribunal, this was contrary to provisions of Section 14 (1) of LG Election Laws of Lagos State.
Describing it as a grave error, Mrs. Opeyemi Oke, who headed the panel, said a court cannot adjourn hearing on its own without any application for enlargement of time.
Section 14 of the State Local Government Election Tribunal Law states that election petitions must be heard 30 days from the day of filing, but it adds that a party could apply for an extension of time subject to the judge’s discretion.
Mrs. Oke declared that if the counsel had applied to the lower tribunal to hear it and it declined, that would have amounted to denial of fair hearing. The error of Obanikoro’s counsel, therefore, according to Mrs. Oke, robs him of the basis to complain.
Speaking after the judgement, Obanikor said he was robbed of his mandate, saying the change that residents of the local government craved when they voted for him would now elude them
