Election tribunal grants Oyetola, APC access to Osun election materials

The Osun Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo has granted Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) the permission to inspect materials used for the July 16 governorship poll.

The tribunal also granted the plaintiffs’ request to electronically scan the voters’ register used for the election and ballot papers.

Granting the plaintiffs’ two applications (motion exparte), the tribunal chairman, Justice Tertsea Kume, ordered that Osun governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke, be summoned through ‘substitution of service of notice’.

The chairman said the notice of summon should be pasted on the notice board of the tribunal.

Speaking on the two applications, Yomi Aliyu (SAN), the counsel to APC/Mr Oyetola, said every effort made by the court bailiff to serve Mr Adeleke the notice of summon failed.

He said the bailiff went to his house at Aisu, Ede, but that the security guards turned the bailiff away after a call was made to someone in the house that directed them not to collect the summon notice.

He said that the bailiff explained (in an affidavit presented) that his security was threatened when he went to serve Mr Adeleke the summon notice at his home.

Mr Aliyu prayed the tribunal to substitute the notice of service by pasting it on the court notice board.

Mr Oyetola and APC are plaintiffs in the suit challenging Mr Adeleke’s victory in the July 16 governorship election.

The governor and APC, however, joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as respondents in the suit.

(NAN)