Former Deputy Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2018 Ekiti governorship election, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, has rejected the judgment declaring Dr. Kayode Fayemi as winner of the July 14, 2018 election.
Eleka insisted that he won the poll, vowing to appeal the outcome.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Mobilisation, Mr. Tunji Ogunlola, had earlier addressed the crowd, saying that Fayemi had ‘worked very hard’ to win the election and that the judgement had confirmed the position of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Also, State Deputy Chairman of APC, Mr. Sola Elesin, described the victory as ‘expected.’
Elesin said the party perpetrated no electoral fraud in the election to warrant the nullification of its outcome, as demanded by the PDP and its candidate.
“We are happy over the outcome of the election, but we are not in any way surprised, because as far as we know, transparent election was held in the July 14 governorship election.
“It was clear that Governor Fayemi won fair and square; so, we were not afraid. Even if they want to appeal the judgement, we are ready for them, because we have no skeleton in our cupboard. There were no cases of electoral malpractices.
“We had won two litigations since Fayemi came on board. He was taken to the court on his eligibility to contest the APC governorship primary and he won. He was taken to the election petition tribunal, he also came out victorious.
“We will continue to win because we have no skeleton in our cupboard,” he said.
However, while reacting to the judgment, Prof Olusola-Eleka dismissed the outcome, saying his party would appeal the judgement.
Olusola-Eleka, who spoke through the Director of Media of his campaign organisation, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said, “That was not the last bus stop as regards the election petition tribunal.
“The law is very clear regarding the hierarchies of courts we can approach to seek redress on this issue.
“We are surely going to appeal the judgement because we know we won the election.”
The tribunal, in its judgement delivered by Justice Suleiman Belgore on Monday, had said Fayemi was validly elected in the July 14, 2018 governorship election.
The tribunal took the position contrary to what was being canvassed by the PDP candidate, Olusola -Eleka.
It said that Fayemi polled a total of 197,459 to defeat Olusola-Eleka, who scored a total votes of 178,022 to emerge first runner-up.
The tribunal which began sitting in Ado Ekiti in August 2018 was later relocated to Abuja, over cases of insecurity in the state. (NAN)