The tribunal denied INEC’s request to produce Adeleke’s certificate — PDP

In Osun State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has denied media reports that the ongoing election petition tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to produce the certificate of the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

According to the party’s Chairman, Dr. Adekunle Akindele, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Governor Adegboyega Oyetola merely sought to subpoena the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC.

The party said: “As at Wednesday, the last sitting of the Tribunal, there was no order of the Tribunal compelling INEC or the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke to produce any document or certificate as it was obvious that the APC were not serious with their case. At any rate, all the documents of Senator Adeleke are in the public domain and verifiable.

“Secondly, the documents he submitted to INEC in 2018 was what the APC used to persecute him and sponsored malicious cases against him, in respect of which he had been vindicated up to the Supreme Court. We want to assure members of the public that the APC and Oyetola are trying to fetch water from a dry well by their petition at the tribunal, which is a mirage.

“At the beginning of the election petition tribunal, particularly at the pre-hearing session stage, counsel for the petitioner and respondents unanimously agreed that all documents shall be tendered and admitted during trial, with objections to their admissibility taken at the final address stage.” This was included in the tribunal’s pre-hearing report. The pre-hearing report also states that the party conducting the hearing and calling witnesses must file and serve a schedule 24 hours before any hearing date.

“May we inform members of the public that since the beginning of hearing at the tribunal, the APC and Oyetolalawyers have been helplessly wandering and dancing around their petition. No single witness has ever been called. The public can do a fact check on this at the tribunal as they would discover that the petitioners have been indolent and unserious with their case.

“We, hereby, appeal to members of the public to disregard the lies and propaganda of the APC as the last kick of a dying horse. Let them not distract us from the swearing-in preparations as their petition is dead on arrival.”

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