The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday said the appeal filed by Buruji Kashamu before it on his claim to the Ogun East Senatorial District seat was meritorious.
The Court, in upholding the appeal, said the facts presented by Kashamu were weighty enough for it to upturn the October 9, 2015 judgment of the Ogun State National and State Assemblies Elections Petition Tribunal that sat in Abeokuta.
The Court thus dismissed the claim to Kashamu’s seat by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dapo Abiodun.
Kashamu was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The lead judgment, read by Justice M.L. Shuaib, held that the tribunal erred and was partisan in its judgement, adding that it descended into the arena and scouted for evidence to nullify Kashamu’s election and truncate his victory.
Shuaib added that it was curious, illogical and perverse of the tribunal to place so much reliance on the evidence of a prosecution witness labeled as PW 44 and further admit as evidence documents that were clearly inadmissible under the law and also act on such evidence to truncate Kashamu’s victory.
According to the panel, PW 44, who posed as a forensic expert, had discredited himself during cross examination when he stated that anyone with prerequisite knowledge could do what he did and added that he had no degree in statistics.
The Court of Appeal ruled on Monday: “PW 44 sold himself out and the tribunal should not have held that he was an expert when he himself had agreed anyone could do what he did.
“No expert opinion is needed in this case since PW44 stated that anyone, even a layman, could do what he did and he has no degree in statistics.
“There is no certification of the admitted printout by the said forensic expert so it is not an exhibit and he also sold himself out when he stated that the Appendix A, B and C, which was his report, was printed from a computer, but the tribunal held that it was PW44’s statement on oath and not a printout.”
The Court of Appeal further held that the case of Abiodun and the APC is a non issue as the material used to nullify the results of elections in some polling units and order re-election is inadmissible in law.
It held: “The case of the first and second respondents (Abiodun and APC) in this appeal collapses like a pack of cards as the respondents fail to lay necessary foundation for the admissibility of the annexes.
“Exhibits A, B and C are expunged as inadmissible
“PW44 was a hatchet man brought to truncate the appellant’s victory and since his testimony is that he thoroughly analyzed some documents from INEC’s register and used a computer to draw a table and print it out, the annexes are indeed a printout.
“It is wrong of the tribunal to place so much reliance on the evidence of a discredited witness and use an inadmissible document to arrive at its judgment.”
The three-man panel was made up of Justices A.G Msheila, Shuaib and Ignatius Agube.
They also adopted the same judgment for the cross petition filed by Abiodun.
It will be recalled that Kashamu’s appeal had suffered a setback before the Court of Appeal due to the disbandment of the panel that was originally set up to hear it by the President of the Court of Appeal
The panel was disbanded due to a petition written by Kashamu and the Peoples Democratic Party, alleging manipulations of the matter and a compromise of panel members by Prince Abiodun and the APC.
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