Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

Step by Step account of events at Appeals Court:

* 12.50 PM– Dr Olusegun Mimiko declared the duly elected Governor of Ondo State
* 12.43 PM– Results resolved in favour of Dr Mimiko
* 12.32 PM– Judges analysing the votes and results
* 12.29 PM– 10 out of 11 issues involved resolved in favour of Mimiko, 11th in progress
* 12.09 PM– Charts detailing the irregularities submitted by LP issue resolved in favor of Mimiko
* 11.49 AM– Issue of unused voters cards, and voters register resolved in favor of Mimiko
* 11.26 AM– Olaitan Ayeni, an aide to Agagu hurriedly left the court room
* 11.23 AM– Political officers signing result forms resolved in favours of Mimiko
* 11.10 AM– Evidences admissibility resolved in favours of Mimiko
* 11.05 AM– SSS report favors of Mimiko
* 10.58 AM– Issue of ballot paper counting resolved in favor of Mimiko
* 10.20 AM– First casualty of the day, INEC’s case thrown out.
* 10:12 AM – Reading starts
* 9:56 AM – Judges arrived.
* 8:55 AM – Mimiko and the National Chairman of Labour party arrived the court premises greeting both LP and PDP party supporters.

Some details:

n an unanimous judgment which lasted three hours, read by the President of the Court, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, the Appeal Court upheld the decision of the Election Petitions Tribunal which nullified the election of Dr. Olusegun Agagu of the PDP and declared Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party as winner.

The Court held that although there were irregularities in certain units of the Local Government, it was not enough to nullify the elections as the Labour Party candidate still scored the highest number of votes cast in the election.

The Labour Party candidate, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko was present in Court along with top officials of the party. The PDP was represented by a few Commissioners.

In upholding the election, the Court ruled that Dr. Mimiko scored twenty five percent of the votes cast in Twelve of Eighteen Local Government Areas with a total of 195,000 votes as against Dr. Agagu’s 135,000 votes.

The Appeal of the PDP candidate therefore failed and all Twelve Grounds were resolved in Dr. Mimiko’s favour.

The Judges also criticized INEC and asked the body to maintain neutrality at all times.

Meanwhile, the street of Akure, the capital of Ondo state are agog with celebration with supporters of Dr. Segun Mimiko spilling out unto the streets with songs of praises. The celebrations started immediately news of the verdict filtered into the state.

The Appeal Court yesterday fixed January 19 and 20, 2009 for hearing of the appeal filed by the Ondo State Governor Olusegun Agagu against the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, has fixed November 10 for hearing of petitions on the Ondo State governorship.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) quoted the chairman of the panel of judges, Justice Umaru Adbullahi, as saying on Monday that all the petitions regarding the governorship election in the state would be determined together.

Tribunal overrules Agagu on admittance of Mimiko’s documents – Vanguard.

THE Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital yesterday, overruled the objection of Governor Olusegun Agagu not to admit some documents presented by the Labour Party governorship candidate in the state Dr Olusegun Mimiko challenging his victory at the polls.

Also, the tribunal ruled that both parties in the suit should present before it all documents in respect of their cases and they would be admitted as read in order to fast tract the matter.
It fixed next week Wednesday and Thursday for Dr Mimiko to present his witnesses as further hearing in the petition continues

Dr Agagu’s counsel Chief Kayode Olatoke said at the resume of the petition filed by Labour Party challenging his victory at the April 14 polls that the documents emanated from INEC were only certified but not signed.

Dr. Olatoke argued that the tribunal should not admit the document, as they were defective adding that some of the document sought to tender failed to meet the required condition as contained in the Evidence Act. The documents in question only had the stamp of INEC that certified them but did not have any author or signature.

Olatoke said the “documents were merely ordinary sheet of paper which anybody could put INEC stamps to them and as such is not tenable at the tribunal.

“I hereby rejected the documents which were not tendered by INEC but were listed by the Labour Party to be tender to the Tribunal”.

But at the resume of the matter, the Chairman of the Tribunal Justice Garba Nabaruma expressed worries over the delay tactics of counsel for about two months cited paragraph 4, 5, and 6 sub section 5, paragraph 5 sub section 10 of the practice direction rule 29 of the Federal High Court to buttress his order that the documents be brought by both parties to fast tract the petition.

Words from Akure has it that the Tribunal has accepted and admitted Mimiko’s petition (evidence, including forensic reports) today (Monday). The ruling was supposed to have been made on Friday. This a major victory for Mimiko since it’s the foundation for the appeal.

More information:

Tribune Tuesday,20. 2007

The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure, Ondo State, on Monday admitted all the documents totalling 1,069 pleaded as exhibits by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

The documents include the death certificate of a 300-level student of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Waribi Idepe, who was allegedly killed in Ese-Odo on April 14 during the governorship election.

Supporters of the LP that were not privileged to enter the court room immediately went into jubilation as news filtered to them that the Justice Garba Nabaruma-led tribunal had admitted the documents.

The documents also include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) manual, voters’ registers in the disputed areas, forms Ec8a, Ec8b and Ec8c.

The disputed areas are Ese-Odo, Ilaje, Okitipupa, Irele, Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo, Akoko North East, Akoko North West, Ose, Odigbo and Akure North.

The tribunal had adjourned ruling on the admissibility or otherwise of the documents till Monday at its sitting on Friday.

Supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the LP had thronged the venue of the sitting with high expectation over the ruling.

Definitive Hearing Enters Day 2

Governor Olusegun Agagu of Ondo State has failed in his bid to stop the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, from tendering some documents at the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Akure.

Mimiko’s counsel, Dr. Olumide Ayeni, had sought for the permission of the tribunal to tender the Independent National Electoral Commission Election Manual 2007 as one of his evidence when the substantive hearing in the petition began on Tuesday.

But Agagu’s defence team, led by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), raised an objection to it.

He asked the tribunal to reject the document because it had not been deposited at the tribunal’s registry before its presentation.

Fagbemi also prayed the tribunal to reject the document because it was not attached to Mimiko’s petition.

He argued that this was in contrast to the provisions of Paragraph 4 sub-section 8 of the Practice Direction.

Fagbemi said that although he was aware that the law governing the tendering of evidence was amended in July, but he argued that the law which was in use as at the time the petition was filed in April should be applicable.

The Peoples Democratic Party’s lawyer, Mr. I. A. Adedipe (SAN), agreed with Agagu’s objection to the admissibility of the document.

In the same vein, the INEC’s counsel, Mr. Obi Okwuzor, and the police lawyer, Mr. J.C.A. Idachaba, also adopted Fagbemi’s arguments.

But Ayeni said that once a public document was signed, it could be tendered from the bar. He added that Section 114 of the Evidence Act permitted the tribunal to admit the document.

Ayeni asked the tribunal to discountenance the respondents’ arguments.

He said that the new law should be applicable since the Practice Direction had been amended.

He added that the law in operation as at the time of tendering the document should be applicable.

The tribunal, headed by Justice G. M. Nabaruma, ruled in favour of Mimiko and admitted the document. There was jubilation outside the courtroom immediately the ruling was read.

Following this, Mimiko’s lawyer also sought for the permission of the tribunal to tender INEC Form EC8D, which is the summary of the results from the local government areas of the state.

He also sought to tender Form EC8E, which is the declaration of results into the office of the governor.

After hearing the arguments of both parties, the tribunal ruled in favour of Mimiko and admitted both forms in evidence.

The tribunal adjourned ruling on it till latter in the day.

Source: Punch

Ondo State Election Peti-tions Tribunal has thrown out the Inde-pendent National Elec-toral Commission (INEC) defence to Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate, Dr Olusegun Mimiko’s petition against Governor Olusegun Agagu’s victory in the April 14 polls.
Delivering the verdict at its sitting yesterday in Akure, the tribunal, headed by Justice G.M. Nabaruma, said INEC filed its defence late contrary to the provisions of the electoral act.

Accordingly, a N5,000 cost was awarded against INEC as against the N12,000 demanded by the LP counsel, Dr Olumide Ayeni. The tribunal had earlier thrown out the defence of the PDP for not complying with the Electoral Act by filing its defence late.
According to the tribunal, the measure is to curtail the abuse of court process and unnecessary delay in the dispensation of justice. The Navy and the Army joined in the petition by Mimiko did not show interest or file any defence.

The statements of defence of Agagu and the Police had earlier been admitted by the tribunal. Ayeni had filed an application, urging the tribunal to throw out the INEC reply to Mimiko’s petition on the grounds that it was filed out of time and that the defence of INEC would amount to abuse of court process. The tribunal yesterday went on a two-week recess to reconvene on Monday Oct. 22.

Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=91515

Source: Sun

Election petition tribunal sitting in Akure, on Monday, threw out the application of the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, praying the tribunal to quash the petition of the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, over the election.

Besides, the tribunal fixed October 23 and 24 for definite hearing of Mimiko’s petition, praying the tribunal to nullify the result of the April 14 governorship polls as declared by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC).

Agagu, through his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), in the application prayed the tribunal to decline jurisdiction on the petition.

The governor preliminary objection asked the tribunal to dismiss Mimiko’s petition for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2006. This, he said, made the tribunal to lack jurisdiction to entertain it.

He added that Mimiko, in his petition, did not join necessary parties and that the petitioner made specific allegations against electoral officers without joining them as parties in the petition.

The counsel also said the petition should be quashed as it was incompetent since any averment complaining about the conduct of any electoral officer, who is not a party to the petition, is liable to be struck out.

Fagbemi asked the tribunal to delete the names of 15th to 18th respondents, who are the Nigeria Police and other security agents who helped to supervise the election, from the petition because they were not necessary parties and should not be joined.

But counsel to the LP candidate, Mr. Olumide Ayeni, told the five-man tribunal that the application was incompetent since the first respondent who filed the application had joined issues with the petition.

Ayeni argued that the petition had been vitiated by the joining of the officials of INEC, who were principals of the people whose conduct were complained of in the petition.

The triunal, led by Justice G.M. Nabaruma, while ruling on the petition held that since the petitioner had joined those he wanted to rely on as witnesses and they are agents of INEC, the petition could not be dismissed on that ground.

On the constitutionality of the petition, Justice Nabaruma said it was too early in the day to adjudicate on that.

The tribunal, which refused to delete the list of the security officers that participated in the election from the petition, held that the petitioner had complained about the conduct of these officials and they should be made to defend themselves.

On whether or not the relief sought by the petitioner could be granted, the tribunal held that it had powers under the electoral act to adjudicate on the relief sought by the petitioner.

In the report of the pre-trial conference read by Nabaruma, he said the tribunal had streamlined the number of witnesses to be called during the proceeding.

According to him, Mimiko would call 30 witnesses to testify on the conduct of the election, Agagu would call 50 witnesses, the PDP would be allowed to invite 20 witnesses, the police seven and the INEC six witnesses.

THE election petition tribunal sitting in Akure yesterday sustained its earlier order granting the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, permission to inspect, scan and make photocopies of polls’ documents. The documents were those used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the April 14 governorship election in the state.

The Justice G.M. Nabaurma-led tribunal had granted LP an ex-parte order, asking INEC to allow the party inspect any document it wishes to investigate, scan and photocopy at the commission to allow them prosecute their case before it.

Source: INEC loses bid to stop Mimiko’s inspection of polls’ documents , Guardian

Ondo State Association, Atlanta, USA: Thoughts on April 2007 elections

We at Ondo State Association,Atlanta, USA are very concerned about the
well being of our citizens at home. We are striving for the economic
growth and safety of the general public.

At the executive meeting held on June 12,2007 in Atlanta
Georgia, it was the conclusion of the association that last April
elections did not reflect the true expressions and aspirations of our
citizens.
From the overwhelming facts and eyewitness accounts received from
various parts of the state, it was apparent that the poor citizens’ votes
were stolen and the results manipulated.
In view of the statement above, we at Ondo State Association condemn
the conduct of the April gubernatorial and local elections.

We however believe, as sound minded and law abiding citizens, that all
aggrieved citizens who felt abused and cheated by the electoral
process, should exercise the right to go to the tribunal set up and rectify
such fraud.
As the last hope for the hopeless in our nation, we must allow the
tribunal the opportunity to right the wrong.The law of the land must be
allowed to take its cause.

There should be no short-circuiting of the law by anybody, however
highly placed.
Not allowing the law of the land to take its cause is to give
lawlessness,
gangsterism, and electoral thurgery a hiding place in Ondo State.

We advice that all aggrieved parties be civil to one another and ensure
that they present their evidences before the tribunal in a
professional manner.

Ondo State Association does not align with any particular party, and is
only interested in the state and good governance for the sake of our
people.

Our goal, among others, is to assist the aggrieved citizens who have
genuine cases of electoral abuse; those whose mandates were stolen during
the last elections, irrespective of political party. The association
can assist with attorney and/or court costs.

We expressed the willingness of our association to work with the
present government of our state in 2003. The government, however, did not
take advantage of this offer, nor of it’s talented indigenous
individuals or companies abroad.

Just as Americans are building America, Europeans are building Europe,
Asians building Asia, we expect Nigerians to build up Nigeria. Citizens
need to be given the opportunity to participate in the building of
their states, and hence Country.

We pray that the Lord will bring around the type of leaders in our
state and country that have the wisdom to do good to all people.

Ignorance and lack of knowledge is killing our leaders. In spite of
revenue allocations to the state, our leaders still travel overseas for
medical check up and treatment. They still send their children to school
abroad for lack of quality institutions. They suffer the same power
failures like other oppressed citizens. They lack good drinking water at
their homes. They drive their vehicles through the same dusty, bumpy
roads, and they breathe the same unhygienic air. They invest with the
enemy as only unwise people do, and they die like the unwise and the
foolish. Time is never of essence to our leaders, therefore it is difficult
for them to leave the scene when their time is over.

If quality of life is defined as the good life enjoyed by an ordinary
citizen due to the provision of publicly funded amenities/infrastructure
by its government, for example, water, power, security, good roads,
parks, hospitals and schools, then it is apparent that the average person
earning about $50,000 in the US enjoys a better quality of life than
even the president of Nigeria, let alone, the governors.

Accumulation of wealth by individuals is not the way to progress for
us. The time is NOW for our government to start serving the people. Let
us build our state together by involving the citizens at home, and
particularly the ones abroad. Together, we can do what individual leaders
and their corrupt staff cannot do.

It is our hope that whichever party or candidate is finally declared a
winner will contact the association.

Ondo State Association is an association of professional individuals
and companies of various categories ranging from infrastructure, health,
and education. Most members are instrumental in helping to build
American communities.

We wait patiently at your service.

Rufus J Oladapo
President.

On behalf of Ondo State Association.

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This write-up was published as paid advertorial in the Nigerian Tribune
& the Guardian, today – 06/27/07.