Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The Election Petition Tribunal, which is hearing the dispute over the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, resumed hearing yesterday as the petitioners’ witnesses began giving their evidence.
The first witness, Dr. Dele Ekunola, state chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was the first to enter the witness box and was grilled for one hour and thirty-five minutes by respondents’ lawyers.
The hearing of the petition filed by the SDP candidate in the last governorship election, Chief Segun Oni, who is challenging the return of the Governor-elect, who stood as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, as the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, was continued (INEC).
Oyebanji is the first respondent, and the Deputy Governor-elect is the fifth. The third respondent is Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, and the fourth respondent is INEC.
Under cross-examination by the counsel for the 2nd Respondent, the APC, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), Ekunola failed to name the units and wards where the alleged electoral malpractices occurred in his witness statement on oath.
He also failed to mention the names of individuals he referred to as the 2nd Respondents’ agents, whom he accused of allegedly distributing between N5,000 and N10,000 to voters on election day in Paragraph 16 of his sworn witness statement.
The SDP chairman also failed to substantiate his allegation in paragraph 32 of his sworn witness statement that the 1st Respondent, Oyebanji, and the 2nd Respondent, APC, provided some electors with voter cards in order to give the ruling party an unfair advantage at the polls.
Ekunola was also called to testify in a pre-election case with Suit Number FHC/AD/CS/5/2022 filed by Senator Dayo Adeyeye, despite the fact that he (Ekunola) was not a party to that suit, which he cited as a reference in his oath witness statement.
When Olujinmi asked if Ekunola was aware that the suit had been withdrawn, he replied that he was not aware of the withdrawal because he was not a member of the APC.
Mr. Obafemi Adewale, counsel for the petitioners, objected to Olujinmi’s request to present the Certified True Copy of the proceedings in that case as an exhibit before the tribunal (SAN).
Adewale informed the tribunal that the reasons for his opposition to the admissibility of the documents would be reserved for the address stage.
