Court of Appeal overturns Adebutu's vote-buying appeal

…. described the call as late and after the fact

By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

A special panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday upheld the decision of the Petition Tribunal for the Election of the Governor of Ogun State, which had previously dismissed all allegations of vote buying and incitement to vote made by the Ogun State branch of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and its guber candidate, Ladi Adebutu opposed Governor Dapo Abiodun and the APC.

The Court, in its main judgment read by Judge MB Idris, also upheld another court decision which upheld the validity of the defense filed by Governor Dapo Abiodun.

Recall that on May 22, 2023, Adebutu and PDP had filed a response to Governor Abiodun's defense.

In the said response, Adebutu and PDP alleged, for the first time, that Governor Abiodun and the APC were vote buying in the March 18, 2023 Ogun State gubernatorial elections.< /p>

When Governor Abiodun received Adebutu's response, the Governor's attorneys filed a motion asking the Court to strike out the response in its entirety or, in the alternative, to strike out the offensive paragraphs from that response.

Counsel for the Governor argued that the response filed by Adebutu and PDP violated Section 16(1)(a & b) of the Schedule to the Elections Act and the Rules of Pleadings.

The Tribunal agreed with the Governor's attorneys and struck out the entire response filed by Adebutu and PDP.

It was established before the panel that the allegation made by Adebutu and PDP was an afterthought that was hastily crafted after Governor Abiodun made significant allegations supported by a police investigation report establishing that Adebutu and PDP had bought votes in the elections in his defense.

It was as a result of this debacle that the PDP and Oladipupo Adebutu rushed out of the country and are still at large till now, while other party leaders in Ogun State are currently being tried in court.

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In the decision, the Court of Appeal confirmed that all allegations of vote buying in Adebutu's response were without jurisdiction and as such, the Court deleted paragraphs 21, 22, 23, 24 , 31, 32, 33, 36, 37 , 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 of the reply leaving some empty paragraphs.

Furthermore, the Court of Appeal dismissed the entire appeal filed by Adebutu and PDP against the decision of the Petition Court for the Election of Governor of Ogun State which upheld the validity of Governor Abiodun's defense.

Earlier in his defense, Governor Abiodun had made strong allegations of voter fraud against the PDP and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, which was perpetrated during the March 18 gubernatorial election in the state. Rather than counter these allegations, Adebutu's lawyers belatedly presented their own vote-buying counter-allegations (all of which were struck out) while also asking the Court to strike out the Governor's vote-buying allegations.

Adebutu and PDP had argued that their petition did not include vote-buying allegations and therefore the governor's defense should not have included such allegations.

However, in its decision, the Tribunal unanimously held that Governor Abiodun was not limited to the same issues that Adebutu and PDP had raised in their petition and that the Governor was free to allege and prove acts of vote buying against PDP and its candidates.

The Court of Appeal unanimously upheld this decision. The Court found the appeal filed by Adebutu unfounded and quashed the appeal in its entirety.

With these rulings, it is now clear that the after-the-fact vote-buying allegations made by PDP have been dismissed and all the evidence they supposedly slipped into the Tribunal will be useless after being confirmed by the Court of Appeal based on incompetence claims.