Court orders election rerun in Banky W’s federal constituency

Thaddeus Atta of the Labour Party was legitimately elected to represent the Eti Osa Federal Constituency, but the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos State, has annulled that election result.

In a late-night ruling handed down on Monday, the tribunal declared the polls to be inconclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to hold a new election in all polling places where voting was not possible within 90 days.

Both Ibrahim Babajide Obanikoro, a candidate for the All Progressives Congress, and Bankole Wellington, a singer and actor from Nigeria known as “Banky W,” of the Peoples Democratic Party, who was declared the runner-up in the February 2023 election, had petitions filed challenging the election results.
With 24,075 votes, the electoral umpire proclaimed Atta the winner. Banky W and Obanikoro received 18,668 and 16,901 votes, respectively.

The All Progressives Congress candidate Ibrahim Obanikoro responded to this on his official Instagram account (@repibrahimobanikoro) on Tuesday morning. He acknowledged it and praised the judges “for this ruling which adheres to the components of the Constitution.”
“When it was established that there will be a second election in a number of voting locations under the Eti-Osa Federal constituency where the election did not take place, everyone in the tribunal court was smiling. I think that our legal system is headed in the right direction, and I applaud the judges for making a decision that complies with the Constitution’s provisions. Now work will begin.
According to his Instagram account, which was observed by our correspondent, “The Feb. 25 election has just been rightly declared inconclusive and supplementary elections have been ordered by the court.” Elections in places where they weren’t held on Election Day must now be held, and INEC has been directed to revoke the return certificate.

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Tuesday morning, Atta of the LP posted on his X account (@_JtAtta) that he had not been fired and that there was “No cause for alarm.”

I’m here to say that I wasn’t fired. In the 32 polling units where elections were cancelled, the Tribunal has only mandated a rerun (supplementary election). For Eti-osa, we will keep working. We are unfazed, therefore I ask my supporters to remain calm. Together, we’ll get through this, he continued.

On Monday night, Banky W tweeted “It is possible.” in a post resembling the response to the election. On his X verified handle, he wrote, “Still.