Is Eleka Still in Doubt?

Is Eleka Still in Doubt?
By Wale Olaleye

Penultimate week, the Court of Appeal, Abuja, dismissed a petition by the candidate of the PDP in the Ekiti State governorship election, Professor Olusola Kolapo, challenging the emergence of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election. A three-member panel of the court, led by Steven Adah, ruled that the January 28 decision of the election tribunal, which had first affirmed Fayemi’s election, was meritorious and therefore dismissed Kolapo’s appeal for lack of merit.

With the Appellate decision, Eleka and his party have also lost all the seats in contention, leaving the PDP more devastated than it was before the Appeal. But the truth is that the Ekiti governorship election was though not perfect as is the case with every election, it however conveniently passed the minimum test of a free, fair and credible election. This is why the Ekiti matter is in no way comparable to the robbery that typified the Osun election, which held a couple of months after it.

Indeed, it would only take a criminal judiciary to pass the heist in Osun. But for the Ekiti election, it appears more like a no-case scenario and the earlier Eleka and the PDP realise this and move on without wasting further resources at the Supreme Court, the better for them. The Ekiti election was a clean, modest win and could stand judicial scrutiny.

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