Politics

Osun poll: Tribunal grants Oyetola leave to inspect election materials

Published

6 years ago

October 13, 2018

The Election Petition Tribunal constituted to hear matters arising from the Osun State governorship election has granted the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the poll , Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola , the leave to inspect materials used for the conduct of the poll held on September 22 and 27 , 2018 .
The tribunal , headed by Justice T . A . Igoche , granted the order in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Friday following an application brought before it by Oyetola ’ s counsel , Yinka Okedara .

The APC , on whose platform Oyetola contested , also made the same application and the tribunal granted it .

The Justice Igoche – led tribunal also granted the candidate and the party the leave to physically inspect election results and other documents and obtain their certified true copies , as well as inspect the smart card readers used for the poll .

The court granted four out of five reliefs sought in the application by the APC and Oyetola but refused to grant the order that the APC , Oyetola and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ademola Adeleke , should carry out a joint inspection of the election materials .

The tribunal had last week granted Adeleke the leave to inspect the election materials and that the Independent National Electoral Commission should not tamper with the materials .

The tribunal ’ s chairman in her ruling held that granting joint inspection order would contradict the earlier order granted to the PDP on October 11 , 2018 by the same tribunal and such process might affect the speedy filing of the petition , which was the major ground of the PDP ’ s application .

She said Oyetola and the APC would have the opportunity of verifying any document through separate inspection order granted Oyetola and the APC in the presence of other interested parties .