The hearing of the Election Petition filed by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola resumed on Monday in Osogbo before election petition tribunal.
At the resumption of the hearing, counsel to Oyetola, Akin Olujinmi SAN told the Justice Tertsea Kume-led tribunal that he was ready to proceed by calling on his witnesses and the other counsels agreed to it.
The star witness of the APC, Mr Isiaka Olanrewaju, a retired civil servant and resident of Ila-Orangun told the tribunal that the BVAS report did not tally with the results announced.
The witness who was led in evidence by the Petitioners’ counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), said he relied on forms EC8As, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and BVAS report released by INEC to arrive at his findings.
While being cross- examined by the INEC counsel, Professor Ananaba, the witness said he analysed the results of the election in 749 units across 10 Local Governments as against 762 units being suggested to him by the counsel for the respondents.
A little drama ensued when the INEC counsel put it to him that the witness analysed results of 762 units, he responded: “That is your opinion, I worked on just 749 units. where you see 762, I don’t know”.
The second witness filed for the day could not be called as counsel to INEC, Paul Ananaba had earlier filed an application against the subpoena mandating the Resident Electoral Commissioner to produce the academic credentials of Senator Ademola Adeleke, later withdrew the application. He later withdrew the application, clearing the coast for the other witness to be called tomorrow.
After a short break, the petitioners informed the court that they were withdrawing the other witnesses slated for the day.
Addressing journalist after the sitting, Olujinmi said the application was the only obstacle for the appearance of INEC official to produce Adeleke’s credentials, saying the obstacle has been dealt with and the INEC Resident Electoral Commission would have to appear before the court with the documents requested for.
“What happened today is that the petitioners called their witness who gave oral evidence on the analysis he did on the results produced by INEC after the election. And the other witnesses who will testify will be coming in tomorrow and the court has adjourn to tomorrow.
“As regards the Subpoena, we expect that the only obstacle as against it was the application filed on behalf of INEC against the Subpoena but they withdrew that application today which means the Subpoena could be obeyed by INEC and then the officer we Subpoened will appear in court by tomorrow with those documents”, Olujinmi added.
In his address, counsel to PDP, Alex Iziyon told newsmen that the petitioner abandoned other witnesses listed for the day, while the last one will be heard on Tuesday.
In his own comment, Ananaba said the hearing is going on smoothly, stating that they withdrew their application in response to withdrawal of witnesses of the petitioner.
“The hearing is going on smoothly. The petitioners have brought their witness. After the break, they withdrew their witnesses and in response, we withdrew our application too. So by tomorrow, we will continue the matter. I believe the proceeding is going on well.”
