The Election Petition Tribunal constituted to hear the petitions arising
from the Osun State governorship election has granted an ex parte order
to Senator Ademola Adeleke, restraining the Independent National
Electoral Commission from altering election results as well as
information contained in the card reader machines and other documents
used for the poll.
The tribunal, headed by Justice T.A. Igoche,
which also has Justice P. A. Obayi as member, granted this order in
Osogbo on Thursday during its sitting before the commencement of
pre-hearing session.
Adeleke, who was the governorship candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party had, through his counsel, Mr. Nathaniel Oke
(SAN), filed an ex parte application seeking leave of the tribunal to
file the application before the pre-hearing session.
The
applicant also sought leave of the tribunal to inspect and obtain
certified true copies of electoral documents and materials in the
custody of INEC; an order to conduct physical inspection and
verification of electoral materials and machines, as well as used and
unused ballots, among others.
Adeleke also applied for an order
to compel the INEC to produce and print out list of permanent voter card
distribution statistics per polling units and an order restraining INEC
from altering extracted information from card readers, election results
from polling unit level to state level, as well as ballot papers used
for the conduct of the governorship election in Osun State.
Adeleke
predicated his application on the grounds that he was the candidate
that contested the election held on September 22, 2018 and the re-run
election held on September 27, 2018 on the platform of PDP.
Other
grounds of the application are: “That the total votes won by the 1st
applicant on the 22nd day of September, 2018 was 245,698 while the 1st
respondent scored 245,345.
“That the 1st applicant was the winner
of the election and ought to have been so declared by the 3rd
respondent (INEC). That the 3rd respondent declared the election
inconclusive hence a rerun was conducted on the 27th day of September
2018.
”That the rerun election was marred by electoral violence,
vote-buying, stuffing of ballot papers, multiple thumb-printing and
voting and allocation of votes by the 3rd respondent. That by the total
actual and valid votes cast on the 22nd and 27th days of September 2018
respectively, the elections were won by the applicants.
“That an
examination of the electoral documents and election materials in the
custody of the 3rd respondent is required to determine the actual facts
and records of the elections to maintain this petition.
“That the
3rd respondent wrongfully declared and returned the 1st respondent as
being duly elected and winner of the governorship election, Osun State
held on 22nd day of September 2018 and the rerun election held on 27th
day of September 2018 respectively.
The 1st and 2nd applicants
are dissatisfied with the said result of the election as announced by
the returning officer of the governorship election, Osun State. That
instant allocation is required for the purpose of instituting and
maintaining the petition.”
The panel, having listening to the
application moved by Adeleke’s counsel held in their ruling that the
allocation had merit and granted the all, I cation as prayed.
Igoche,
who read the ruling said, “We are of the view that the application has
merit.mwe ahead by grant the application as prayed.”
Addressing the
fear raised by the applicant that INEC might not respect the tribunal’s
order except they were armed with a certified true copy of the order,
Igoche said there was nothing stopping the panel from issuing the order
to the applicant on the same day.
There was heavy presence of
armed policemen and operatives of the Department of State Service on the
court presides and outside the court as security operatives were
deployed to prevent destruction of the proceedings at the tribunal.
Those
going into the court premises were frisked by policemen from the police
anti-bomb unit while vehicles were also thoroughly searched to prevent
hoodlums from smuggling weapons into the place.
