Aregbesola/Omisore: Tribunal will give judgement tomorrow

The Election Petitions Tribunal hearing matters arising from the Osun
State governorship election of August 9, 2014 is set to deliver its
final judgment on Friday, January 6 (tomorrow).
Secretary of the Tribunal, Mr. Adamu Aliyu, confirmed the date on the
telephone to our correspondent in Osogbo, Osun State capital, on
Wednesday.
"The judgement is coming up on Friday, January 6," he said.
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Iyiola
Omisore, had dragged Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives
Congress to the tribunal.
Chairman of the panel, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime, had on January 23,
during the adoption of written addresses by all parties, adjourned
indefinitely for the final judgment.
The PDP candidate, who came second in the election with 292,747 votes
against Aregbesola's 394,684 votes, prayed the tribunal to sack the
governor and declare him the winner of the poll.
Omisore's counsel, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), had told the tribunal
during the address stage that Aregbesola admitted that he scored
234,971 votes, and not the 394,684 credited to him by the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), who represented Aregbesola, explained that
the governor did not admit scoring less than the number of votes
credited to him.
He stated that what the table meant was that "assuming with our
conceding that the tribunal cancel the result in the disputed units,
the first respondent would still have won with the new figure."
He argued that the petitioner failed to prove his petition.
The counsel referred to the objection of the first respondent to the
petition at the hearing stage, saying he adopted the two applications
filed to challenge the competence of the petition.
Based on this, Aregbesola's counsel urged the panel to strike out the petition.
The counsel argued that the petitioner dumped the ballot papers used
for the election and other electoral materials on the tribunal without
demonstrating to the panel how they related to the case.
He further stated that the duplicate copies of Form EC8A tendered by
the petitioner were inadmissible, and that those who tendered them
were not the makers of the documents.
Counsel for the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN)
also urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition by Omisore.
Akeredolu adopted APC's written address and at the same time adopted
the arguments of the first respondent in the case.
He also said that he was not opposed to the objections raised by the
first and third respondents in their written addresses, adding that
the suggestion of the petitioner that the APC did not have locus in
the case was strange.
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Akeredolu argued that the purported certified true copies of documents
tendered did not conform to the provisions of the law.
He said that the documents were not listed nor pleaded and those who
tendered them were not the makers.
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr. Ayotunde
Ogunleye, had adopted the same argument by the first two respondents
in the case.
Ogunleye had said that nobody came before the panel to give evidence
that they were disenfranchised during the poll.
He further said that Omisore had failed to prove the burden of proof
shifted to him and that his petition should be dismissed.
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