Appeal Court dismisses Adebutu’s allegation of vote-buying in Ogun governorship election

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Wednesday, dismissed an allegation of vote-buying leveled against the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the state, Ladi Adebutu.

Adebutu and his party had in a reply to the defence filed by the governor and the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the petition challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election at the state election petition tribunal accused the respondents of vote-buying and voter intimidation in the exercise.

Abiodun and APC later filed an application and asked the tribunal to dismiss the reply in its entirety or in the alternative, to strike out offending paragraphs from the reply.

The tribunal, thereafter, dismissed the allegation filed by petitioners for lack of merit.

READ ALSO: Ogun poll: Adebutu presents 8,000 exhibits against Governor Abiodun

The panel declared the claim as an afterthought hastily put together by the petitioners in response to Governor Abiodun’s allegation of vote-buying during the election.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Adebutu and PPD approached the appeal court to set it aside.

In its ruling, the special panel of the appellate court confirmed held that the allegations of vote-buying in Adebutu’s reply were incompetent and thus dismissed paragraphs 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 in the reply filed by the petitioners.

It, thereafter, upheld the tribunal’s ruling on the validity of Abiodun’s defence on the allegation.

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