Tribunal adjourns Osun Guber for judgement

The Osun State gubernatorial election petition tribunal has adjourned for judgement after counsels to the parties argued their final addresses.

Justice Tertsea Kume, who chaired the tribunal, said that a judgment date would be communicated to all the parties.

Recall that on December 20, 2022, the Tribunal adjourned sitting to January 13, 2023 for all the parties in the matter to adopt their final addresses.

Lead Counsel to former Osun State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, Lateef Fagbemi, in his address, held that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred in its synchronised report which he described as contradictory.

Fagbemi also stated that the Electoral Act, 2022, did not take into account synchronisation.

According to him, “To allow INEC to have its 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.”

While urging the Tribunal to nullify the declaration of Ademola Adeleke as the winner of the July 16, 2022 gubernatorial election, he alleged that he had forged certificate.

“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,” he said.

INEC, the 1st respondent, through its lead Counsel, Paul Ananaba argued that the petitioners were not accurate with reports of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

In his words, “The BVAS reports tendered by the petitioners were incomplete because the INEC server had not completed the synchronization process when it was issued to them.”

On the basis of claims of over voting using the BVAS machines as a basis, Ananaba urged the Tribunal to dismiss the claims of the petitioner, Adegboyega Oyetola.

Lead Counsel to the 2nd respondent, Ademola Adeleke, Onyechi Ikpeazu in his submission noted that none of the requirements allowed by the Electoral Act to prove over voting provided such evidence.

“The petitioner did not bring any document in prove of forgery and no witness from the institution to disown the documents that were allegedly forged,” he said.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counsel, Alex Izinyon stated that the issue of forged certificates had been settled.