The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting
in Abuja on Friday held that the petition of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), and its candidate, Isiaka Adeleke,
challenging the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
and Governor Gboyega Oyetola has merit.


A three-member panel of the tribunal held that the petition
has merit and accordingly dismissed the objections filed by
Governor Oyetola, APC and the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).

Mr Adeleke and the PDP in their different petitions had urged
the tribunal to declare that he scored the highest lawful votes
in the election and should be declared as the winner.

However, Mr Oyetola, APC and INEC filed their notices of
preliminary objection against the petition on the grounds that
the petition is incompetent. They said the court lacked
jurisdiction to entertain the petition.

Delivering the lead ruling of the three-member tribunal, the
chairman, Ibrahim Sirajo, held that the objections were
misconceived and struck them out.

The tribunal also faulted INEC handling of the relevant
documents.

The tribunal said that the CTC should and must be exact
replicas of the EC8A pink copies. The discrepancies must,
therefore, be explained and justified by the 1st respondent:
INEC.

In this instant, INEC failed to explain nor justify the alterations
and failed to call any witnesses to justify the alterations.

It held further that the attempt to explain the alterations on
the basis of mere correction of errors is not acceptable and
the fact that the said errors were consistently made in the
disputed areas means it was a deliberate action taken.

However, the court is yet to deliver its judgment on the main
suit of who the true winner of the election is. The judgement
on the main suit will be delivered later on Friday.


https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/321626-breaking-osun-tribunal-dismisses-apc-oyetolas-objection.html?fbclid=IwAR1mDTVl-k0s-XpNyRyY5qcw4alrtvQYo_a9e4iswfTSFfAaYkzOgHtrE0I

Hmm