The Action Peoples Party (APP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have withdrawn the petitions filed against the re-election of Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The APP had filed a petition challenging the re-election of Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ogun State governorship election held on March 18, 2023.

However, the party, on Monday, May 15, told the tribunal that “upon the re-evaluation of the grounds and facts of the petition, the petitioner is not reasonably convinced about the sustainability of the grounds of the petition as presently constituted before this Honourable Tribunal.”

The APP declared that the withdrawal of the petition was based on the fact that upon a further evaluation of the petition, the petitioner had found that the respondent won the highest number of lawful votes as duly recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and permitted by the law.

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Also, the NNPP Chairman in the state, Sunday Oginni, said the party, which filed a petition against Abiodun before the tribunal over the alleged omission of the party’s logo on the ballot papers for the governorship election by INEC, was ready to withdraw.

Oginni said: “The New Nigeria Peoples Party, Ogun State chapter under the leadership of Comrade Olaposi Oginni Sunday hereby step out of court and withdraw the suit with petition number: EPT/OG/GOV/01/2023.

“We came to realise that on that same date (March 18), despite the fact that the INEC did not comply with an electoral act that stipulated that the name and logo must be on the ballot, the electorates still manage to vote for some of NNPP’s candidates and some of our candidates won in some places.

“For example, in Kano State, the governorship candidate of our party and candidates of NNPP for the House of Assembly and Reps were declared winners.”

The chairman of the tribunal, therefore, upheld the applications of the two party and dismissed the petitions.

The Star