The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, has upheld the victory of Senator Nicholas Tofowomo, representing Ondo-South Senatorial District at the Senate.
The court dismissed the petition filed by the United People’s Congress Party, which sought the nullification of Tofowomo’s election
Recall that the Federal High Court had earlier struck out the application filed by the candidate of the Action Alliance in the senatorial election, Mr Olatunji Felder .
Felder prayed the court to nullify the victory of Tofowomo, saying the conduct of supplementary election of March 9, 2019 by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Ondo-South was flawed because parties were not officially informed before the conduct of the rerun election.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the lower court, the UPCP filed an appeal at the appellate court to challenge the high court judgment.
The trio of Justices M.A. Danjuma, R.M. Abdullahi and P.A. Mahmood, the Court of Appeal In a unanimous judgment delivered dismissed the petition of UPCP, saying the petition lacks merit.
The court also awarded the sum of N300,000 cost against the appellant.
INEC had declared the February 23, 2019 senatorial election inconclusive.
INEC ordered for a supplementary election which was held on March 9, 2019.
At the end of the supplementary election, the electoral body declared Tofowomo the winner with 81,892 votes while Yele Omogunwa of the All Progressives Congress polled 55,610 votes and Olatunji Felder of the Action Alliance scored 27,150 votes.
