Ekiti: Oyebanji, INEC close case as tribunal adjourns for adoption of addresses

Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, on Tuesday tendered key documents before the state Election Petitions Tribunal in defence of his victory at the 20 June governorship election.

Mr Oyebanji, who was the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the 2nd Respondent in the separate petitions filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Action Alliance (AA) to challenge his victory, opened his defence by tendering the documents and closed his defence thereafter.

The governor, who was seeking re-election, polled 319,224 votes to defeat the candidates of other parties.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wole Oluyede scored 40,543 votes to the second place, while that of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dare Bejide, came third with 12,872 votes.

The SDP candidate, Adebayo Alade, polled 179 votes while the Action Alliance (AA) flagbearer, Olu Omotoso, scored 126 votes.

Mr Oluyede, who filed a petition at the tribunal to challenge Mr Oyebanji’s victory has since withdrawn it.

Mr Bejide did not challenge the governor’s re-election.

On his part, Mr Alade, the SDP candidate, withdrew from his party’s petition, allowing it to proceed without him.

On Tuesday, in response to the petitions filed by the SDP and AA, Mr Oyebanji, through his lead counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, tendered Certified True Copies (CTCs) of sensitive electoral documents obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The documents tendered by the governor included Form EC8D, which was the summary of results from the Local Government Areas Collation at the state level; Form EC8E, the official result sheet for the governorship election as declared at the conclusion of collation; and INEC official receipt for payment of CTCs of election results.

In the two petitions, all the documents tendered by the 2nd Respondent (Oyebanji) were admitted and marked as exhibits.

There was no objection to the admissibility of the documents from the lead counsel to INEC, Sulaiman Ibrahim, SAN, and Olaoluwa Adeoti, who held brief for the lead counsel to SDP and AA, Adewole Adebayo.

Mr Ikpeazu said having reviewed the evidence led in chief by the petitioners and the evidence led by Mr Oyebanji’s legal team during the cross-examination of the witnesses brought to court by the petitioners, the 2nd Respondent had no intention to call any witness.

Mr Ikpeazu, on behalf of the governor, applied to close the case of his client before the tribunal. There was no objection from counsel to the petitioners (SDP and AA) and counsel to INEC.

Earlier in the day, counsel to INEC, Sulaiman Ibrahim, SAN supported by his colleague, Wendy Kuku, SAN also tendered relevant documents in support of the conduct and declaration of results of the election conducted by the nation’s apex electoral agency.

The documents tendered by INEC’s legal team included CTCs of Form EC8D, the summary of results from all the 16 local government areas collated at the state level, and Form EC8E which was the official result sheet for the Ekiti governorship election.

There was no objection from counsel to Mr Oyebanji and counsel to SDP and AA to the admissibility of the documents. The documents were subsequently admitted and marked as exhibits by the three-member panel led by the Chairman, Abubakar Idris Kutigi.

While Mr Ibrahim closed the case for INEC in the SDP petition, Mr Kuku closed the case for the electoral umpire in the AA petition.

The two senior lawyers, while closing their clients’ cases in the two petitions, said they were satisfied with the evidence obtained during the evidence-in-chief of the petitioners’ witnesses and in their cross-examination by the respondents’ counsel.

Panel chairman, Mr Kutigi, in short rulings for the two petitions urged all parties to file and exchange written addresses and replies.

He subsequently adjourned the sitting till Friday, 20 November for the adoption of written addresses by parties in the petitions.

All lead counsel to parties in the petitions commended the judges on the panel for their industry and patience, praying for wisdom in the onerous assignment of scrutinising all the evidence before them as the proceedings gradually inch to a conclusion.

The SDP and AA had closed their cases before the Tribunal on Thursday, 22 October, with no further witnesses to call as the day fell on the final day allowed by law for the prosecution of their petitions.