Fayemi wants Appeal court to dismiss Oni’s application

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has urged the Court of Appeal in Ado-Ekiti to dismiss the appeal of ousted Governor Segun Oni. Oni, who was sacked by the Court of Appeal in Ilorin in 2010, had two weeks ago returned to the Court of Appeal in Ado-Ekiti to seek the reversal of the judgment which brought his three-and-half-year rule in the state to an abrupt end. But Fayemi had in his motion challenging the propriety of Oni’s appeal, said that the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the application. He urged the court to dismiss Oni’s suit. Fayemi, who described his predecessor as a bad loser,, also described Oni’s appeal as an “afterthought and an attempt to subject the justices of the appellate court to an unwarranted odium and opprobrium.” The governor also insisted in his deposition that election in the six wards he challenged in the lower tribunal were marred by violence and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act and the Manual for Election which informed his decision to challenge Oni’s purported return before the tribunal. The deposition reads in part, “I was able to establish through myriad, cogent and convincing oral and documentary evidence that the election and return of the first applicant (Oni) ought not to stand as same was fraught with electoral malpractices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2006.” “This honourable court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the motion filed by the appellants as this honourable court lacks the vires to alter the effect of its own decision. “The filing of the motion is vexatious, oppressive, want in bona fide and constitutes flagrant abuse of court process. The condition precedent for the setting aside of court’s judgment ex debito justiciae have not been fulfilled by the applicants.” “The motion is invidious and despicable invitation of thishonourable court to sit on appeal over its own judgment. “Allegation of bias or likelihood of bias leveled on the Court is not a cognizable ground for setting aside a judgment delivered by that Court. “Close affinity between any justice(s) and one of the parties is not a ground for setting aside a judgment. Judgment obtained by fraud is not akin and cannot be equated with judgment that is allegedly induced by bias or close affinity.The motion of the Applicants is strange and unknown to Law.” Oni had accused Salami of bias, saying that he was not given a fair hearing because of the affinity of the justice with the chieftains of the ACN and Fayemi. By Femi Makinde, Ado Ekiti CourtestOf:Punch