Senator Rasheed Ladoja, former governor of Oyo state and gubernatorial candidate of Accord Party in the last governorship election has began legal proceedings to challenge the victory of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of All Progressive Party (APC) at a tribunal to be inaugurated soon.
Investigation revealed that as at the time of filing this report, only Senator Ladoja has submitted a petition against Ajimobi at the governorship tribunal while the three other candidates, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala of Labour Party (LP), Senator Teslim Folarin of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Engineer Seyi Makinde of Social Democratic Party (SDP), have somewhat conceded defeat.
Meanwhile, it has been gathered that various interest groups including notable Ibadan indigenes and organizations are mounting pressure on Senator Ladoja to withdraw his petition from the tribunal for the sake of peace in the state.
At the inauguration sitting of the National and state Houses of Assembly election tribunal in the state, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice J.G Abunsaga said that the tribunal has received thirty-six petitions in respect of results of elections into the National Assembly and state house of Assembly in the state.
Breaking it down, Justice Abunsaga said that two and 10 petitions were received for senatorial election and House of Representatives respectively while 24 were for the state House of Assembly.
Seeking the cooperation of all the counsels in the matters disclosed that the panel would not exceed the 180 days stipulated by the nation’s constitution to wind up all the matters.
The judge also cautioned that the tribunal would not tolerate playing to the gallery by some counsels, stressing that, the tribunal would not tolerate any unnecessary adjournment to foot drag the matter.
“We shall be firm on all issues. Election petition tribunal is time bound. Every petition filed must be heard and dispensed with within the 180 days stipulated by the constitution of federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.”
Other two members of the tribunal are Justices G.C Nnamani and A.N Suleiman.
Responding on behalf of the counsels in the matters, Chief Richard Ogunwole, (SAN) assured the tribunal of the counsels’ maximum support.
He however charged the tribunal to impress it on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release necessary documents on request by the counsels.
“In as much as we are ready to cooperate with the tribunal, I believe there is need for the tribunal to impress it on the INEC and the REC on the need for them to release the documents in their custody. The papers are public property. Some of these documents were not released to some lawyers who have been there under the ground that their photocopy machines are not working. Since last Thursday, INEC has been closing its office. INEC wants to create a bottleneck. The documents are public documents. I don’t think INEC should take public holiday and lock up its office because time has started counting. INEC and the REC should take note and cooperate.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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