GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION LITIGATION AND POLITICAL STABILITY IN ONDO STATE NIGERIA, 1983-2013

The attendant violence that greeted election results in Nigeria in the past calls for great concerns, and for this to be mitigated, functional electoral law that will enable all aggrieved parties to seek redress in the law court must be put in place. Citizens must have confidence and respect in the verdict of the court, in order to achieve political stability and development. This article, therefore, discusses governorship election litigation and political stability in Ondo State, to avail people the possibility inherent in litigation as against resorting to self help that makes people to take the law into their hands. This article argues that one cannot talk of democracy without having a functional court, which is one of the key institutions the concept and practice of democracy anchors on. The study, going by available indices concludes, that the people of Ondo State believes in the sanctity of the law court, and this has made the relative stability achieved in the polity of the state possible.