Olusegun Oni - Election Controversy

Election Controversy

Oni's election as governor has been contentious with his main opponent in the 2007 general election, Dr. Kayode Fayemi challenging his victory rigorously at the Election Petition Tribunal in Ekiti State.

Segun Oni was briefly thrown out of office after the court of appeal upturned the decision of a lower court after the April 2007 general election. In Ekiti State, effort to get a proper governor at a point during his tenure using the re-run election of 2009 was "marked by violence and intimidation since the man elected back in 2007, Segun Oni, was thrown out of office after massive vote-rigging emerged".

Apart from violence, adding to the controversy was the conduct of the electoral commissioner who initially refused to announce the results of the re-run election. "The electoral commissioner was supposed to announce poll results last week after the initial re-run but refused to do so, alleging fraud, and temporarily went into hiding". The result of the re-run election was also challenged by his arch-rival, Dr. Kayode Fayemi at the Ekiti State re-Constituted Election Petition Tribunal.

In May 2010, Oni won by a split decision (3:2) at the election petition tribunal. "The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, upheld the election of incumbent Governor Segun Oni, thereby dismissing the petition filed by the Action Congress (AC) Governorship candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi". The "Majority ruling declares Oni winner with 109,000 to Dr. Kayode Fayemi's 106,000 after deductions of unlawful votes were made". The minority ruling opposed this by upholding that "We hold that the Petitioners have duly and dutifully proved their case". Two judges supported the minority judgement while three judges endorsed the majority ruling. He was removed from office on the 15th of October following the Judgement of the Appeal Court which ruled against him in favour of his opponent Kayode Fayemi.