Hope for Banky W as tribunal orders supplementary poll in Eti-Osa federal constituency

The national assembly election petition tribunal sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has ordered a supplementary election for the Eti-Osa house of representatives seat.

On Monday, the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary poll in 32 polling units in the constituency within 90 days.

The tribunal agreed with the petitioners — Bankole Wellington of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Babajide Obanikoro of the All Progressives Congress (APC) — that the election did not take place in about 40 polling units.

In February, INEC declared Thaddeus Attah, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), as winner of the Eti-Osa federal constituency seat.

Attah polled first with 24,075 votes to defeat Wellington, popularly known as Banky W, who got 18,666 votes.

Obanikoro secured the third spot with 16,901 votes.

BANKY W, OBANIKORO, ATTAH REACT

In an X (previously known as Twitter) post published on Monday night, Banky W assured his supporters that “it is possible”.

It is possible. Still.

— Banky Wellington (@BankyW) September 11, 2023

On his verified Instagram page, Obanikoro said the tribunal had ordered that the election should be conducted in areas it did not hold in February.

“The Feb 25 election has just been rightly declared inconclusive and supplementary election has been ordered by the court,” he wrote.

“INEC has been ordered to withdraw the return certificate issued and conduct elections in areas where election didn’t hold on election day.”

Also, in a X post on Tuesday, the LP candidate assured his supporters that there is “no cause for alarm”.

“I am here to clarify that I was not sacked. The tribunal has simply ordered a rerun,” he wrote.

No cause for alarm!
I am here to clarify that I was not sacked. The Tribunal has simply ordered a re-run (supplementary election) in the 32 polling units where elections did not hold. We will continue working for Etiosa.

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I urge constituents to keep calm as we are unshaken. We…

— JT Atta Thaddeus (@_JtAtta) September 12, 2023

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