ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed May 27 to deliver its judgment on the appeal filed by Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the decision of Court of Appeal, Akure Division, which affirmed the election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state.
The apex court reserved the judgment after counsel to the parties had adopted their briefs of arguments and addressed the court on the merit of their case.
Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), lead counsel to Senator Iyiola Omisore, urged the court to set aside the concurrent judgments of Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal and Court of Appeal Akure as there were no concurrent findings.
He prayed the court to nullify the August 9, 2014 governorship election for its irregularities.
Citing the tribunal’s record, Izinyon said the tribunal identified the irregularities which marred the election but failed to pronounce on it. “Court of Appeal did not make any finding as it ought to do in respect of the alleged irregularities,” he submitted.
On his part, lead counsel to Governor Aregbesola, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal and allow his cross-appeal for the simple reason that the second respondents (APC) was never a party to the petition and maintained that the appellant changed the name of the party without leave of the court.
He also urged the court to dismiss the appeal because out of the 43 witnesses who testified at the tribunal, only seven witnesses were party agents while “the rest who claimed to be supervisors gave ‘hearsay’ evidences and agreed at the tribunal that the entering they made in the result sheets were false”
Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Adegboyinga Awomolo (SAN), who represented APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) respectively, also prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and allow the cross-appeal.
Earlier during the hearing, the presiding justice, Justice John Fabiyi, had overruled the objection raised by Chief Olujimi that the appellant briefs were an abuse of court process.
Justice Fabiyi directed that instead of withdrawing any of the two briefs, it should be marked FC 204 and FC 204A for easy identification.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune
