Expdonaloaded News; Supreme Court dismisses Omisore’s suit against Aregbesola’s re-election

The Supreme Court yesterday, dismissed an appeal filed by Senator Iyiola Omisore, challenging the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which affirmed Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s election victory in Osun State.
Omisore, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the election held on August 9, 2014, had challenged Aregbesola’s victory at the Election Petition Tribunal, and lost.
He appealed against the tribunal’s judgement at the Appeal Court but lost again as the court upheld the tribunal’s verdict.
Not satisfied, Omisore approached the Supreme Court to set aside the Appeal Court’s judgement, claiming that there was miscarriage of justice in the process.But the apex court’s panel of seven justices, in its judgement read out by Justice Centus Nweze, held that Omisore’s appeal was devoid of merit and dismissed it entirely. According to the Expdonaloaded blog, the court in the unanimous judgment, also upheld the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, and the Osun Election Petition Tribunal, which had earlier affirmed Aregbesola’s election.
“The concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal are, hereby, affirmed.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com.“There has been  no merit in the appeal, it is hereby ordered that the main appeal and cross-appeal are dismissed entirely and parties are to bear their own costs,’’ Justice Nweze ordered.
The court also held that the appellant failed to prove the case of substantial election malpractice against the respondent, saying that the appellant’s arguments in that regard were mere speculations.
 It stated that the testimonies of the appellant’s witnesses were riddled with mistakes, errors and gaps, which made them untenable and unreliable.“Their testimonies did not weather the barrage of cross-examinations put to them and cannot stand as it is a settled law that the burden of proof must lie with the appellant,’’ Nweze said.”
The court also dismissed the preliminary objection raised by the respondent as ‘’unmeritorious’’ and allowed the cross-appeal on admissibility of exhibits earlier tendered before the election tribunal.
Recall that Omisore’s counsel, Alex Izinyon (SAN), had in his submission urged the court to set aside the Appeal Court and Election Tribunal’s decisions.
Izinyon also urged the court to nullify the outcome of the governorship election, arguing that the election was fraught with irregularities.

Click photo to download; but you lied to me by Expdona aka finish gravity