Afrigather Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will on October 26 start a full listening to of the petition filed by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) towards the declaration of Senator Ademola Adeleke as governor-elect.
Life-style Nigeria stories that the tribunal made this pronouncement after concluding the pre-hearing session on Thursday.
The tribunal was requested to dismiss the functions of the Peoples Democratic Occasion (PDP) and the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), looking for the discontinuation of the petition delivered to it by Governor Oyetola.
Counsel for Oyetola and the APC, Lasun Sanusi, SAN, on the sitting of the tribunal argued that Adeleke’s, PDP’s and INEC’s reliance on a Federal Court docket Excessive judgment was nothing however an abuse of court docket course of.
Sanusi argued this whereas replying to separate functions of the trio, looking for the dismissal of the petition based mostly on the already appealed Federal Excessive Court docket judgment disqualifying Oyetola from contesting the election.
Citing Supreme Court docket choices within the case of Jegede Vs INEC, 2021, 14NWLR, Pt 1797, web page 409, the counsel mentioned the court docket had dominated that the signatories to the letter conveying the nomination of a candidate weren’t the nominators; quite, the nomination was finished by social gathering members on the congress, therefore, the judgment couldn’t stand.
In the meantime, the counsel for INEC, Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN; counsel for Adeleke, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN and counsel for the PDP, Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, agreed that any choice the tribunal would tackle the matter must wait till the Attraction Court docket and the Supreme Court docket selected it.
They famous that they only determined to argue the functions to have it on report, a place which the tribunal agreed with and placed on report.
Additionally, in different functions totalling 9 by the three respondents, they requested the tribunal to strike out some paragraphs of the petition on the grounds that they had been both lumped collectively or not associated to the 2022 election.
In response to every of the functions, Sanusi mentioned all of the circumstances cited by the respondents had been misconceived, including that they weren’t relevant within the occasion case.
He cited the case of INEC Vs Otti, 2016, 8NWLR, the place the Supreme Court docket hinted that INEC was presupposed to be impartial, arguing that each one the processes filed earlier than the panel haven’t portrayed the fee’s neutrality.
Sanusi additional argued that the functions filed by the respondents had been solely meant to stop the tribunal from specializing in listening to the petition on advantage, asking the panel to dismiss the functions.
Subsequently, counsel for all events within the matter agreed to start the complete listening to beginning with the calling of witnesses on October 26.
In his ruling, the tribunal declared the pre-hearing session concluded and introduced that the pre-hearing convention report could be introduced on October 17.
