With Mumini Abdulkareem
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ibadan will on
Monday deliver its judgment in the petition filed by the governorship
candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Bayo Adelabu,
against the election of the state governor, Mr Seyi Makinde.
The tribunal had fixed today for the judgment after adopting the
written addresses of the parties to the petition.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared
Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the
election conducted on March 9, 2019.
According to the results declared by the commission, Makinde scored
515, 621 votes to defeat Adelabu, who polled 357, 982 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the result, Adelabu filed a petition before
the tribunal, alleging irregularities in the conduct of the election.
In the petition, Adelabu listed INEC as the first respondent, while
Makinde and the PDP are second and third respondents, respectively.
The parties to the suit had at the last sitting adopted their written
addresses with the APC’s candidate, urging the tribunal to upturn the
victory of Makinde.
Adopting his final written address, the counsel to INEC, Akinolu
Kehinde (SAN), urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for being
grossly unmeritorious and lacking in substance.
Kehinde said that instead of proving their allegation before the
panel, the petitioners erroneously put the burden of proof on INEC
whereas the responsibility of proof lies on the petitioners.
He said that the petitioners complained of irregularities in 1,334
polling units and only called 38 polling unit agents out of which
majority of them confirmed that the election conducted by INEC
complied strictly with the Electoral Act.
Also, counsel to PDP, Nathaniel Oke (SAN), while adopting his final
written address, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the
ground of inadequacy of evidence and for lacking in merit.
But the counsel to Adelabu and APC, Yusuf Alli (SAN), urged the court
to hold that the petition was meritorious and that other witness not
called have their statement properly laid before the tribunal.
Alli said that under the law the number of witnesses called cannot
override what had been properly laid before the tribunal.
