The petitioners before the Election Petition Tribunal considering matters relating to the July 16 Osun governorship election, Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun State, and the All Progressives Congress, closed their case on Saturday.
The tribunal also permitted true copies of Form CF001 and all of its attachments at the hearing on Saturday. Ademola Adeleke, the governor of Osun State, used these documents to file for office in 2018.
The records were given to the tribunal by the Independent National Electoral Commission through Deputy Director Joan Arabs after being reviewed and admitted as evidence by the petitioners’ attorney, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.
Earlier, counsel to INEC, the 1st respondent in the matter, Mr Henry Akunebo, informed the panel that an original file of Adeleke’s GCE results, testimonial as contained in Form CF001 he used to contest the 2018 election, had been brought by his client in compliance with the order of the Tribunal.
At last Thursday’s sitting, INEC on subpoena by the panel had presented the documents, but Adeleke’s GCE results and testimonial obtained from Ede Muslim Grammar School, Ede, were noted to be blurry and the Commission was ordered to bring a clearer copy at the next sitting.
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Counsel to Adeleke, the second respondent in the matter, Mr Niyi Owolade, and that of PDP, the 3rd respondent, Dr Alex Izinyon, SAN, said they had gone through original copies brought by the 1st respondent, noting that the documents were more legible than the previous ones presented.
After going through the documents, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who represented the petitioners, said they were legible enough and applied to tender them before the panel.
But counsel to the respondents opposed tendering of the documents but they reserved their argument till the final written address stage.
Izinyon also said the entire documents and its attachment could not be admitted, since only two pages were said to be blurry, out of the ones previously brought by INEC.
But Fagbemi insisted that the entire documents should be admitted since the copies earlier brought by INEC had not been admitted by the panel.
The panel admitted all the original documents brought by INEC and tagged them as exhibit ‘FILE D.’
Fagbemi while further addressing the panel, said the petitioners had closed their case.
In his ruling, the panel chairman, Justice Tetse Kume, adjourned further hearing till December 20 for the respondents to open their case.
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