Appeal Court Reserves Judgment In Osun Governorship
The Court of Appeal, Ibadan, Oyo State presided over by Justice Clara Bata Ogunbiyi on Monday reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Osun State, Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, against the declaration of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the winner of the April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election.
Other members of the panel are Justices M. R. Garba, P. A. Galinje, C. C. Nwabueze and A. Jaure.
At the sitting of the court, Aregbesola’s main appeal and the cross appeal filed by Oyinlola were adopted and argued by the parties who were given 30 minutes and 15 minutes each to do their submissions.
Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), leading counsel to Aregbesola had told the appeal panel that he was referring to four main issues in the main appeal upon which he wanted the court to set aside the verdict of the Justice Alli Garba-led Election Petition Retrial Tribunal which had dismissed the petition last May.
Olujinmi told the panel that though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its officials filed a reply to the Aregbesola’s petition, the commission failed to call any witness to defend the allegations of irregularities levelled against it by the petitioners.
According the the silk, the INEC elected not to call any witness or lead evidence to challenge the alleged irregularities in the election. This, he argued meant that the INEC abandoned their case, adding that the case of the petitioners was not challenged in any way.
He referred the judges to the fact there there were ten local governments in respect of which the appellants were complaining, stressing that the panel would find out that at the end of the day, Aregbesola had more votes than the person who was declared the winner by INEC.
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