AREGBESOLA OPENS DEFENCE AGAINST OMISORE'S PETITION TODAY

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, will on Monday (today) open his defence against the petition filed by Senator Iyiola Omisore before the Election Petitions Tribunal hearing matters arising from the August 9 governorship election in the state. The petitioner had closed his case on Wednesday after spending 14 days to call 43 witnesses, including expert witnesses, tendering of loads of evidence to prove the allegation of rigging and violence against his supporters during the poll.

The petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Nathaniel Oke (SAN), had told the panel that his client would close his case having spent the 14 days allotted to him by the law.

Oke expressed delight in the way the panel had been handling the case since the trial commenced. He said the fact that there were no petitions written against the panel or any of its members showed that the tribunal had shown integrity and fairness in handling the case.

Aregbesola’s counsel, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), while addressing the tribunal, said that the first respondent would be ready to open his defence anytime next week (this week).

The Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime, adjourned further hearing in the matter till Monday, December 8, for the first respondent to open his defence.

Omisore, who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, had filed a petition before the tribunal to challenge Aregbesola’s victory. The petitioner joined Aregbesola’s party, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission as second and third respondents respectively.

The petition followed the declaration of Aregbesola as the winner of the poll with a total votes of 394, 684 while Omisore came second with 292,747 votes.

The PDP, candidate in a statement issued to reject the result, said he was aware of the odds against him, even before he joined the governorship race.

He said, “It was not a race we came into, unmindful of some of the odds stacked against us. For instance, we had a situation where a clearly partisan Resident Electoral Commissioner had opened the entire electoral system to our opponent from registration stage through data storage to personnel loading.”