Tribunal Delivers Judgment in Oyo Governorship Election Dispute

Ololade Adeyanju/

The Election Petitions Tribunal has fixed Monday, September 16 to deliver judgment in the Oyo State governorship election dispute.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Adebayo Adelabu, had filed a petition challenging the victory of Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Tribunal had recently admitted the final written addresses filed by all the parties in the suit.

Adopting his final written address, the counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Akinolu Kehinde (SAN), urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for being grossly unmeritorious and lacking in substance.

Kehinde said that the petitioners erroneously put the burden of proof on INEC whereas the responsibility of proof lies on the petitioners.

He said that the petitioners complained of irregularities in 1,334 polling units and only called 38 polling unit agents out of which majority of them confirmed that the election conducted by INEC complied strictly with the Electoral Act.

Kehinde had said that it was the responsibility of the petitioners to bring at least one witness from the 1,334 polling units, they complained about and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.

Makinde’s counsel, Dr Omyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), had said that the reliefs sought by the petitioners were faulty and evidences of the other witnesses not called amounted to hearsay and urged the court to dismiss the petition.

Adopting his final written address, counsel to PDP, Nathaniel Oke (SAN), had urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the ground of inadequacy of evidence and for lacking in merit.

But the counsel to Adelabu and APC, Yusuf Alli (SAN), urged the court to hold that the petition was meritorious and that other witness not called have their statement properly laid before the tribunal.

Alli said that under the law, the number of witnesses called cannot override what had been properly laid before the tribunal.

According to him, cases were not won on the quantum of witnesses called but on the quality of testimony of the witnesses called, adding that the testimony of petitioners’ witness number 62 (PW62) spoke volume. Alli further said that there were massive electoral infractions in 28 out of the 33 Local Government Areas called and a document spoke for itself after being adopted.

He said that a certified true copy of a document could be tendered by anybody and not only the maker, urging the tribunal to find merit in it.

The three-man panel of the tribunal led by Justice Sirajo Muhammed had praised the counsels for their cooperation throughout the proceedings, adding that a judgment date would be communicated to them.

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