The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Shittu Ibrahim, has been declared the winner of Saturday’s Saki West State Constituency rerun election for Oyo State House of Assembly.
Shittu defeated his his closest challenger, Julius Okedoyin, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Recall that Shittu was declared winner of the March 18, 2023 election by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Shittu polled 13,692 votes to defeat Okedoyin, who had 13,422 votes.
Not satisfied with the result declared by INEC, Okedoyin and PDP approached the election petition tribunal, claiming irregularities, overvoting, and non-compliance.
In a unanimous judgement delivered in September 2023, a three-member tribunal led by Justice Jubril Anaja, nullified Shittu’s election.
According to Anaja, the result of the election could be significantly impacted by the cancellation of results in Unit 7, Ward 6 and Unit 19, Ward 11 of the constituency, which had 1,285 voter cards collected.
The tribunal held that over 1,000 voters were disenfranchised, while the margin of victory between the winner and petitioner was 270 votes.
In an attempt to overturn the tribunal’s decision, Shittu appealed the judgement.
However, in a judgement delivered in November 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s judgement and ordered a rerun in the two polling units. It also directed INEC to withdraw the certificate of return from Shittu.
In Saturday’s rerun election, Shittu polled 290 votes while Okedoyin had 330 votes.
The APC candidate polled 200 votes in Unit 7, Ward 6, Odo Osun, to beat Okedoyin, who had 190 votes.
In Unit 19, Ward 11, Ogbalanja, Okedoyin polled 143 votes to defeat Shittu, who got 90 votes.
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