From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Osun State election petition tribunal has adjourned for judgement after the argument of counsels on final written addresses.
The lead counsel to the petitioners, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, submitted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred by issuing different contradicting reports and referred to one as synchronized report.
He posited that synchronization is unknown to the new Electoral Act, saying “to allow INEC to have it way by the concept of synchronization, that means they can declare election one day and come the following day that result has not been synchronized and thereby decide who wins and not the electorates.
“The issue of result is different from accreditation. What is required is updating of result and not updating of accreditation.”
He also alleged that the 2nd respondent, Governor Ademola Adeleke, has submitted a forged certificate saying “the testimonial says it was issued in 1988 about three years before Osun State came into existence when nobody knew that the state would be created in 1991, and urged the tribunal to nullify the declaration of Adeleke as the winner of July 16, 2022 governorship election.
The lead counsel to the 1st respondent (INEC), Prof Paul Ananaba SAN, said “in our reply to the petition, and as adopted by RW1, that there were infractions according to the BVR, in 1,750 units.
“So what the petitioner did was to pick 749 polling units to get what they wanted. And if you want to rely only on exhibit BVR, and If you deduct the 1,750 units that affected both parties from the 3,763 units, the second respondent will still win overwhelmingly with over 20,000 votes,” he submitted.
The lead counsel to the 2nd respondent (Adeleke), Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, submitted that the requisite evidence to prove over-voting is register voters, entries in the BVR and form EC8A, noting that none of them established over voting.
He submitted that the petitioner did not call any document in prove of forgery and no witness from the institution to disown the documents that were allegedly forged.
“The effect of over voting in 6 polling units by law, is the cancellation of those polling units. We have done a table for the six polling unit, 1200 for PDP 700 for APC,” he added.
The lead counsel to the 3rd respondent (PDP), Alex Izinyon SAN, said the issue of testimonial from Ede Muslim High School and Grammar school has been settled by the principal who said the names referred to the same school.
He said the petitioner should have called the principal to testify and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
The tribunal led by Justice Tertsea Kume, adjourned the judgment indefinitely saying the date would be communicated to the parties.
