Osun tribunal admits Oyetola’s documents showing irregularities in 10 LGAs

The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has admitted in evidence the Certified True Copies of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System reports showing overvoting in favour of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ademola Adeleke, during the July 16 governorship election in the state.

The Justice Tertsea Kume-led tribunal also admitted in evidence Adeleke’s Diploma Certificate from Penn Foster High School, B.Sc Certificate from Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Letter of Attestation dated 22/5/2016 from Ede Muslim High School, NYSC Certificate of Exception and some other documents as exhibits.

Also admitted are, forms EC8As, for Olorunda, Obokun and Ila local government areas, forms EC8Bs which are results of the wards and forms EC8Cs; the results of each of the 10 local governments being challenged, forms EC8D which is the summary of the overall result, EC8Es the declaration of the result and form EC9.

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress are challenging the declaration of Adeleke by the Independent National Electoral Commission  as winner of the election in the 10 local government areas, just as it is also challenging his qualification to stand for the election.

At the resumed hearing of the petition on Thursday, counsel for Oyetola, Saka Layoonu (SAN) tendered additional documentary evidence, including the CTC of the BVAS reports which indicated that the number of accredited voters is lower than the total number of votes cast in the said councils.

Layoonu informed the court that the evidence had been jointly cross-checked by both parties and the secretariat of the tribunal and confirmed to be accurate.

The counsel for the respondents, Jamiu Olabode (INEC), Niyi Owolade (Adeleke) and Nathaniel Oke, SAN (PDP) objected to the admissibility of the documents.

The tribunal, in its ruling admitted the documents in evidence, marked them as exhibits and adjourned till November 16.