Appeal Court to Omisore: Aregbesola is Osun governor

The hope of Senator Iyiola Omisore to govern Osun State was, once again, dashed on Thursday by the Court of Appeal sitting in Akute, Ondo State.
The court dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the August 9, 2014 election against the verdict of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal that upheld the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The court also upheld the cross appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that Omisore’s petition ought to have been dismissed by the trial tribunal headed by Justice Elizabeth Ikejime as the pre-hearing notice was filed out of the time required by law.
The five-man panel, headed by Justice Gana Mshelia, in a unanimous decision, upheld the argument of Aregbesola’s counsel, Mr Akin Olujimi (SAN), and dismissed the appeal filed by Omisore’s counsel, Dr Alex Isinyon (SAN), for incompetence. stressing that the ground for the appeal did not arise from the judgement of the tribunal.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Aregbesola as the winner of the election.
The court upheld the preliminary objections by Aregbesola and APC’s counsel, challenging ground 13 of the Notice of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal held that the ground does not arise from the judgement of the tribunal.
The Court of Appeal held that the decision of the tribunal was that Aregbesola’s counsel did not make any admission.
Therefore, having failed to appeal this specific decision of the tribunal, the Court of Appeal held that ground 13 is incompetent and consequently struck it out.
The court resolved other issues against Omisore and PDP.