The Accord Party candidate in the 20 June governorship election in Ekiti State, Opeyemi Falegan, has directed his legal team to file a petition before the Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the victory of Governor Biodun Oyebanji.
Mr Falegan, a businessman and philanthropist, said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would also be joined as a respondent in the suit over its conduct of the election.
He disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, alleging that the election was marred by vote-buying, malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and intimidation of voters.
“We will meet in court. The evidence is overwhelming. From vote buying in broad daylight, to BVAS malfunction, to the militarisation of polling units and intimidation of voters, Ekiti people were denied their right to choose freely,” the candidate said.
Mr Falegan said his lawyers were compiling documentary evidence, including copies of Forms EC8A, EC8B and EC8C allegedly showing discrepancies between votes cast and figures announced.
He said the evidence also includes video and photographic materials purportedly showing incidents of vote-buying and the omission of the Accord Party logo on some ballot papers across several local government areas.
Other materials to be presented before the tribunal include BVAS error logs, incident reports on manual accreditation and device failures, witness statements from party agents and voters, and affidavits from polling unit supervisors alleging that votes cast for the Accord Party were excluded.
The INEC Chief Returning Officer, Adenike Oladiji, had, in the early hours of Sunday, declared Governor Oyebanji the winner of the election, having met the conditions set for the election by Nigerian laws.
Mrs Oladiji, the vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), said Mr Oyebanji polled 319,224 votes to defeat his closest rival, Wole Oluyede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, who finished a distant second with 40,543 votes.
The governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress(ADC), Oluwadare Bejide, came third in the race with a total of 12,872 votes. Mr Bejide has since rejected the result of the poll, alleging irregularities.
Mr Falegan came fifth in the election, securing 564 votes in the contest involving candidates from 14 political parties.
Election observer groups, including Yiaga Africa, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), had earlier reported incidents of vote-buying, inconsistencies in sensitive election materials, and malfunctioning voter accreditation devices during the election.
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Their findings align with reports from PREMIUM TIMES, which documented allegations of vote-buying, complaints about electoral procedures, and isolated disruptions during the poll.
Points of contention
Mr Falegan alleged that his party’s agents observed that the Accord Party logo was omitted from ballot papers in some polling units.
He further claimed that votes cast for him were not announced at some polling units and were subsequently excluded during collation, alleging that figures recorded on Form EC8A were altered before transmission.
The candidate also alleged that some INEC officials were instructed not to count votes cast for the Accord Party, an action he argued contravenes Section 64 of the Electoral Act 2022.
