ADOPTION OF WRITTEN ADDRESS AND PDP DANCE OF SHAME BY IBRAHIM LAWAL ESQ It was a drama of absurd yesterday when the PDP supporters went to town jubilating a phantom victory of the declaration of their candidate for the August 9,2014 Gubernatorial election held in the State of Osun which Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola won convincingly against the nay sayers who thought the election was a done deal for the PDP. As early as 7 am yesterday, Friday 23/01/2014, PDP supporters had assembled at the entrance of the Osun State High Court but prevented from entering. Lawyers and some personalities were allowed in while some others were kept out at a distance. The Legal fire works started by 9am with Chief Akin Olujinmi SAN adopting the written address of the 1st Respondent. He began his argument by saying that the petitioners have no locus standi to file the petition in the first place. According to him, the petitioners are challenging 939 wards for which they tendered 914 Forms EC8A and assuming without conceding that the Petitioners established cases of non-compliance in all the 914 polling units for which the petitioners tendered forms EC8A, the 1st Respondent will still win the election by majority of lawful votes cast having satisfied the requirement of S. 179 (1) of the Constitution. He submitted that the net effect of this which was not countered by the petitioners in their written address is that the petition cannot be sustained and ought to be dismissed by virtue of S.139 (1) of the Electoral Act. Apart from the fact that the petitioners lack locus to file the petition, Chief Charles Akinlolu Olujinmi SAN argued that the petition is doomed to fail because the petitioners have not adduced any evidence to prove all the allegation of irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act in all the 17 Local Government being challenged. He argued that the petition is frought with abandonment of pleadings as the petitioners failed to call evidence in 116 out of 142 wards and 709 out of 939 units being challenged when the law is settled that evidence must be led in all units and wards being challenged. He went on further to say that the nature of evidence called by the petitioners is so negligible and unreliable that no reasonable tribunal will grant such relief. According to him out of the 43 witnesses called by the petitioners, only 7 were polling units agent out of which two of them gave evidence of unpleaded facts. The remaining are ward collation and Local Government collation agents apart from PW 15 and 38 who were termed experts. The testimonies of all the ward agents and Local government collation agents has been declared hearsay evidence which is inadmissible on the authority of Gundiri v.Nyako. On the evidence of PW 15 and 38, Chief Olujinmi SAN submitted that they are not experts; the nature of evidence they gave does not qualify as expert evidence;, that the evidence they gave are not pleaded; they acted outside the scope of the petition; the available documents before the tribunal contradicted their reports and evidence thereby rendering their testimony unreliable and thoroughly discredited. Chief Olujinmi went on further to argue that the specific allegations upon which the grounds of the petition were predicated are criminal in nature and the petitioners have failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt. For the 2nd Respondent, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu Aketi SAN while adopting his written address submit that the petition is a profound waste of judicial time. According to him, the petitioners have not led any cogent and credible evidence to support his petition. All the witnesses called by the Petitioners add no value to the case of the Petitioners. On the Petitioners argument on the non-creation of voting points which took enormous space in their written address, he submitted that their contention about non- creation of voting points goes to no issue as there is no such pleadings in the petition. He reffered to paragraph 36e on page 16 of the petition. He argued further that there is no legal basis for the submission that non-creation of voting pounts, even if established, which is not conceded, amounts to substantial non-compliance with the provisions of relevant sections of the Electoral Act,2010 and Manual for Election Officials 2014. Ogunleye Ayotunde, Counsel to INEC, the 3rd Respondent while adopting his written address urged the court to dismiss the petition. He submitted that the heavy weather made by the petitioners about INEC not calling evidence is of no moment. According to him, the Petitioners are seeking declaratory reliefs and that the onus is on them to succeed on the strength of their case and the petitioners have not even established prima facie case to warrant calling a rebuttal evidence. He further argued that leading evidence is different from calling evidence. He submitted that under cross- examination, he elicited evidence to discredit petitioners witnesses and that he tendered documents. He went on further to submit that the evidence led by the Petitioners are worthless and need no rebuttal evidence. He argued that no voter was called to prove disenfranchisement and that there was no demonstration of over- voting from the documents by the Petitioner witnesses. He finally submitted that the Petitioners merely dumped documents on the tribunal without calling oral evidence. In his reply, Dr. Alex Iziyon, SAN, Counsel to PDP and Omisore, submitted that the 1st Respondent has admitted in his written address that their votes should be deducted in the table on page 6 of his written address and therefore that they have majority votes. The tribunal however directed his attention to paragraph 4.2.4 of the 1st Respondent Address that It is submitted; assuming without conceding, that it is taken for the purpose of argument. He then submitted that the table is not correct. He then submitted that the Petitioners did not dump documents on the tribunal because the documents were shown to their witnesses. On the testimonies of PW15 and PW 38, he argued that the tribunal should not jettison the totality of their evidence and that the tribunal can rely on some part of the testimonies even though it does not believe in some other parts. He finally submitted that the standard of proof required is that of preponderance of evidence and that the Petitioners have proved their case accordingly. In replying on points of law, Chief Akin Olujinmi SAN submitted that the contention by the Petitioners Counsel that the 1st Respondent that certain votes be deducted from the 1st Respondent is calculated to confuse the tribunal. He submitted that assumption can never be regarded as admission in law. He further submitted that the meaning of the phrase assuming without conceding is well known to lawyers on making alternative counter submission and can never amount to admission. He finally urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition as same as not been proved. The tribunal adjourned the case for judgment and that hearing date will be communicated to parties by hearing notice. After the court rose and the lawyers filed out of court, Alhaji Gani Ola Oluwa, Osun State PDP Chairman who had his HND before OND jumped out of the court premises went straight to those of their supporters who had been kept away and announced to them that they have won the petition. The gullible PDP followers went into wild jubilation that the tribunal has declared Omisore as the governor. In their exhibition of unlimited ignorance they went to town causing hardship to motorists and passers by and announced to those who care to know that their governor will be sworn in on saturday. For those who appears to be a bit educated, they hide their ignorance with the phrase that Iyiola will soon take over government in few days time when the tribunal gives her judgment. Personally, i am in the least surprised by the lies and show of shame Osun PDP exhibited on friday as such has been their trademark since assumption of office by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. It is the tallest dream for Omisore and PDP to think they could get through the back door, victory which they failed to achieve through the ballot box. Let me assure the good people of the State of Osun that the law is 100% on our side and no amount of ochestrated shenanigans will take away the God ordained victory of our dear Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola which you all voted for overwhelmingly on the 9th August,2014 as justice is done based on the law and not on sentiment.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 21:57:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015