The Ogun State governorship election petition tribunal has struck out an allegation of vote buying levelled against Governor Dapo Abiodun and the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu.
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Mr Adebutu is challenging the return of Governor Abiodun as the winner of the 18 March governorship election.
But in their response to the petition, the governor’s lawyers, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), cited a police report indicting Mr Adebutu and the PDP of vote buying during the elections.
However, in their response, Mr Adebutu and the PDP accused the APC of buying votes in the elections.
But the governor’s lawyers, represented by Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), filed an application asking the tribunal to strike out the petitioner’s reply, saying the petitioner had introduced vote-buying as a new issue and fact while responding to the second respondent’s reply.
According to him, the introduction of new issues/facts in the reply contravenes paragraph 16(1) (a & b) of the Electoral Act and the rules of court pleadings.
Mr Osipitan also argued that some paragraphs in the petitioner’s reply were offensive and prayed the tribunal strike it out for being incompetent.
But the counsel to Mr Adebutu, Goddy Uche (SAN), asked the tribunal to reject the second respondent’s application for lacking in merit, saying it was used as a delay tactic on the petition.
Mr Uche added that Mr Abiodun made the allegation of financial inducement of voters against the petitioner, an issue which he said was not in the petition before the tribunal.
Mr Uche further said the petitioner had merely responded to the opponent’s accusations as contained in reply to the original petition.
He emphasised that the second respondent’s counsel raised the issue out of a ‘blue moon’.
In its unanimous ruling read by its chairman, Hamidu Kunaza, the panel struck out the petitioner’s reply.
The tribunal held that if the petitioner’s reply were allowed would constitute injustice as the second respondent would not have the opportunity to respond to the petitioner’s reply.
“The petitioner’s reply dated May 22, 2023, is hereby struck out,” the tribunal held.
It then adjourned the sitting to Thursday for another ruling.
Speaking to journalists after the ruling, a member of Mr Adebutu’s legal team, Olumuyiwa Obanewa, said the team would study the ruling and decide whether or not to file an appeal.
Mr Obanewa said, “The position of the tribunal is that the reply that we filed to the reply of the second respondent, who is the governor of Ogun State, that the reply raises issues that the second respondent would have no opportunity to respond to, and therefore those issues would not be allowed. The petition is still competent, and the reply filed by respondents is still competent.
“In the reply of the second respondent, they raised the issue of vote-buying, and in our own attempt to respond to those issues, because we believed those issues were new issues that were not contained in our own petition originally, so, if you are now raising the issue of vote-buying and we have the opportunity of also saying that you were also involved in vote-buying, we should be free to bring out those issues.
“But in the ruling, the court didn’t agree with us totally. We will look at the ruling; if there is a need for us to appeal against that ruling, we will do that.”
Also, a lawyer in Mr Abiodun’s legal team, Deji Enisehin, said, “The petitioner tried to bring in some new facts which ordinarily should have been part of the petition while responding to the second respondent’s reply. We objected to that, and the court agreed with us in line with the principle.”
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