SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, (THEWILL) – The Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candiadte in the September 28 election in Edo state, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, to accept the verdict of the state Election Petitions Tribunal.
Ize-Iyamu and his party, the PDP, had challenged the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the poll.
A three-man election petitions tribunal headed by Justice Ahmed Badamasi had dismissed Ize-Iyamu’s case and upheld the victory of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The panel dismissed the petitions filed by Ize-Iyamu and the PDP as lacking in merit, ruling that the petitioners failed on all fronts to prove the allegations as pleaded in their petitions.
“The petitioners have failed to prove their case with credible evidence and is therefore dismissed,” Badamasi said.
Reacting to the ruling, the PDP and its candidate in the 2016 Edo election, Ize-Iyamu, said in Benin on Friday that the judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal which dismissed their petition was unacceptable.
Ize-Iyamu told party leaders and supporters at a forum attended by the state chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, that the judgment would be appealed at a higher court.
“From the snippets I heard, the tribunal’s judgment cannot stand in the higher courts. This case must be pursued up to the Supreme Court,” the PDP flagbearer said.
But in a statement issued on Saturday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Desmond Agbama, said the Oba, the monarch declared that in spite of the verdict, there was no victor no vanquished.
Both Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu are of the Bini stock – this makes them the Oba’s subject and in Benin, the Oba’s statement is obeyed like the law.
The statement reads, “In an election, there is no victor and no vanquished.
“Consequently, Osagie Ize-Iyamu should accept the decision of the tribunal in good faith and forge ahead in the task of providing democracy dividends for the people.”
He congratulated Obaseki on his victory, and urged him to focus on sanitising the society, providing critical infrastructure and creating job opportunities for the teeming unemployment youths in the state.
Oba Eware II also urged all stakeholders to support the administration in the task of moving Edo state to greater heights.
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