buy acomplia online | buy Prozac online | buy Lasix online | buy Propecia online | buy Toradol online | buy Imitrex online | buy Methotrexate online | buy Benadryl online | buy Atarax online | buy Celebrex online | buy Risperdal online | buy Tetracycline online Osun election tribunal: Is history repeating itself? Osun election tribunal: Is history repeating itself? Wednesday, 17 September 2014 00:00 Written by Tunji Omofoye,Osogbo Category: Policy & Politics FIVE weeks after the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, won by the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the dust generated by the election adjudged by most observers and stakeholders to be free and fair, is yet to settle. Hits: 296 Print Email In fact, the attention of parties and the general public has shifted from the election to the courtroom where one of the major contestants, Senator Iyiola Omisore is challenging the outcome of the election. Omisore, who is the runner up in the election and its party, the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} have gone to court challenging alleged irregularities and malpractices during the poll in about 17 councils. The election held in 30 local councils in the state and the area office in Modakeke, was heavily militarized by the central authorities, in Abuja. The over 800- page petition filed by Omisore before the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal might not be surprising to keen political watchers in the Osun political game, given the inordinate ambition and keen competition for power between the two parties since the previous election in the state in 2007. As predicted even before the election, Omisore like what his counterpart in the then Action Congress of Nigeria (Now APC) did in 2007 is claiming that the election was not totally free and fair and has asked the tribunal to look into his grievances. As part of the political chess game, APC and Aregbesola have allegedly evaded service by Omisore and his party. This development had made the, panel to ask the petitioner to paste notice of service at both the Government House in Okefia, Osogbio where the governor resides and the Governor’s Office, Abere, Osogbo. The panel order was sequel to PDP’s position that the 1st respondent (Aregbesola) had been evading the service of court processes by allegedly instructing his aides and security details not to receive any document from the tribunal’s bailiff. Aregbesola, was declared winner of the poll with 394, 684 votes to defeat Omisore, who polled 292,747 votes. Order of substituted service Granting the order of substituted service, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Suleiman Ambrusa said that “Having considered the paragraph 8 of the PDP’s counsel’s application, Mr Afolabi Fashanu, Aregebesola should be served the copy of the petition by pasting same on the walls of the Government House and Governor’s Office at the state secretariat”. He asserted, “this case must be prosecuted. The petition should not be one-sided. If you can’t paste it, come tomorrow for another order. How should somebody evade or run away from being served and why should the security officials refuse to cooperate with the tribunal’s bailiff to serve the governor”. Aregbesola wants tribunal chairman to step aside However, there was a mild drama, when the lead counsel to the APC, Mr Kunle Adegoke raised the issue of a petition filed by his clients against the chairman of the Election Petition Tribunal, Justice Ambrusa at the National Judicial Commission (NJC) over his propriety of presiding at the tribunal’s proceedings According to him, “there is a serious issue of propriety of your Lordship in being the head of this tribunal. There are certain fundamental issues that must be addressed in the petition against you at the NJC. If a party is expressing lack of confidence in a judge, the requirement is that such judge should step aside from handling the case”. Responding, the chairman of the tribunal said, “I am ready to step down. I didn’t put myself here. Anybody can accuse anybody. I have not seen the copy of the petition against me. There should be decorum. Since you have written the NJC, I would be served a copy. By law, it is only the NJC that can act on your application”. Another member of the 3-man Election Petition Tribunal contended that, “You are pushing the chairman to disqualify himself. This is a panel duly constituted. Why can’t you wait for the NJC to act. If we disqualify ourselves, what would happen to the petitions you filed?” Expected, the tension, the anxiety and the intrigues generated before, during and after the poll have also manifested at the tribunal. The tribunal has so far recorded its first casualty. The former chairman heading the three-man panel Justice I.M.Bako had been changed in controversial circumstance. Fresh indication from one of the parties has also pointed to the fact that Justice Bako’s successor, Justice Suleiman Ambrusa may not be the last chairman that would hear the petition. So, like what was experienced during the disputed 2007 election, Osun state might still score another first when it comes changing the tribunal chairman before the conclusion of the petition. Fight over video recording of inspection of documents Besides, during the suspended inspection of both sensitive and non-sensitive materials used for the election, the parties have continued to exhibit low level of tolerance. The inspection exercise granted by the tribunal has become controversial as the outcome of the election itself. There has been hot argument by counsels representing the parties. This has led to tension and open fight between cousels to the two political parties over the propriety or otherwise on video recording the proceeding. The state headquarters of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC} located on Gbongan-Osogbo Road was almost turned to a boxing arena by overzealous counsels who wanted to defend their client on the issue of video recording. While APC and its counsels maintained that it was in order to record the inspection of election materials electronically, the PDP regarded the action as illegal and out of the order granted by the panel for the inspection of the materials. The disagreement led to a scuffle between counsel to APC, Mr Dawood Akinloye and his PDP counterpart, Mr Kehinde Adesiyan. Tension rose between the parties as they engaged each other in hot argument leading to a scuffle. Supporters of the parties and journalists present during the event had a field day as they watched the two counsels almost engaging in fisticuff. The prompt intervention by INEC’s Administrative Secretary, Mr Oladipo Oladapo however saved the day as the commission official pleaded with the angry parties and later invited them to a meeting on the issue in his office While the APC counsel insisted that the inspection must be recorded to enhance transparency, PDP counsel opposed it maintaining that the video might be used mischievously on Osun State owned television station in favour of APC. In an attempt to resolve the matter, INEC offered to do the video recording and give the video to interested parties but APC counsel rejected the offer on the account that such video recording by INEC might be doctored or edited. The counsels stood up to each other and it took the intervention of security men to prevent them from exchanging blows. The incident consequently grounded the inspection activities to a halt. While speaking with The Guardian, Akinloye claimed the electronic recording was not against the law adding that it would help in authenticating the inspection of materials. He later accused his colleague from the PDP of undue assault on him and threatened to challenge the action in court. Defending APC’s decision to do the video recording of the inspection exercise, Akinloye said it was part of strategies to prevent PDP from allegedly voiding the ballot papers on the pretext of the inspection. He claimed that the PDP had used such opportunity to falsify election documents in 2007 and this led to the loss of some seats by the defunct ACN then. This however led to another altercation between Akinloye and Adesiyan who said Akinloye’s position should be discountenanced. The head of Operations of INEC, Mr. Azeez Olatunji and INEC counsel, Mr. Wuyep Ishaku intervened to save the duo from turning the media centre at the INEC office into a boxing ring. Both Akinloye and Adesiyan called each other unprintable names during the quarrel which lasted for about 10 minutes. The PDP Publicity Secretary, Prince Bola Ajao, who spoke with The Guardian on the development accused APC of deliberate plan to slow down the inspection, adding that the party had allegedly gone outside the order granted by the tribunal to inspect the election materials by the parties. Although he claimed he was not around when the argument between the counsels came up, he vowed that his party would not yield to APC’s demand to record the proceeding. He said, “We know their antics and we are not going to shift an inch to allow them to browbeat us this time around. We are here for inspection of materials as granted by the tribunal nothing more”. Adesiyan claimed that the APC was deliberating slowing down the process to waste time. “The APC lawyers were deliberating wasting time because they want to slow us down and prevent us from progressing”. Ajao noted that the APC did not seek approval to do the video recording from the tribunal and that the issue of recording was not in the order granted by the tribunal As the case proceeds, the onus is on the petitioner to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt before the panel. Political observers are of the view that Omisore and his party might have some evidence pertaining to alleged rigging or malpractice before they filed their petition, despite the general perception that the poll was free, fair and transparent. Another school of thought believes that the PDP was out to repay the APC in its own coin having challenged the result of the 2007 elections which did not only lead to the cancelation of election results in 10 local councils said to be areas where the PDP was popular but also earned Aregbesola victory at the end of the day. It is however too early to predict what could become of Omisore’s long petition but the people of the state are anxiously waiting to see where the PDP’s decision to challenge APC’s much celebrated victory would end. Will the tribunal upturn this victory and declare the Ife-born politician winner at the end of the day? Time will tell.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:41:20 +0000
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