The Election Petition Tribunal hearing matters arising from the Osun State governorship election held on August 9, 2014 has adjourned indefinitely for judgement.
The chairman of the three man panel, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime, said on Friday after parties in the case had adopted their final written addresses.
The Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, urged the tribunal to declare him the winner of the total lawful votes cast during the poll and return him as the governor.
Counsel to the petitioner, Dr. Alex Izinyon, while adopting his written address and his reply to the first, second and third respondents’ final addresses, told the panel that Governor Rauf Aregbesola had admitted in his written address that he did not score up to 394,684 votes credited to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which was the basis on which INEC declared him (Aregbesola) the winner of the poll.
Izinyon told the tribunal that the first respondent, on pages 5 and 6 of his final address, admitted that he scored 234,971 votes and not the number of votes credited to him by the electoral commission.
The counsel was silent on the number of votes credited to Omisore by Aregbesola’s counsel but the chairman of the panel supplied the number (219,189).
The petitioner’s counsel said that having admitted that the first respondent did not score up to 394,684 the tribunal should hold that the new figure which they claimed was binding on them.
He stated further that the number of votes allocated to Omisore in Aregbesola’s final address was not binding on the petitioner while urging the panel to uphold the old figure of 292,747 votes credited to the PDP candidate by the INEC as his authentic score.
He said that lawyers were the mouthpiece of their clients in litigations and whatever they said should be upheld.
He said, “We urge your lordships to allow this petition and declare the petitioner as having the lawful majority votes cast and be sworn in as the governor of Osun State.
“Looking at pages 5 and 6 of the first respondent’s written address, they have made it simple for the tribunal. They admitted in the table they draw that they scored 234,971 and not what the INEC credited to them. This is an admission from the first respondent. This is different from the votes INEC gave to them.
“They have not come to the tribunal to say that the votes credited to them by INEC are legitimate and should be upheld. They have the right to allocate vote to themselves but they cannot allocate votes to us.”
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