Osun Election: Tribunal Grants, Oyetola, APC Leave To Inspect Election Materials

By Kehinde Ayantunji

The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, Capital, Osun State on Friday directed the Independent Electoral Commission(INEC) and the Osun State Residential Electoral Commissioner to allow the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its Governorship Candidate in the September 22, 2018, election, Alhaji Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola to inspect the certified true copy duplicates of the election materials.

Chairman of the Tribunal, Mrs T A Igboche granted the order while ruling on the application of Oyetola and APC seeking the relief of the tribunal for the purpose of filling defence that may arise from the election.

Oyetola and APC in the application sought the order of the tribunal to obtain the true copies of the electoral materials and conduct physical inspection in respect of the election materials as it relates to form EC8A, EC8A, Card Reader Verification records showing the status of the accredited voters.

The governor-elect among others sought the leave of the tribunal to obtain the report of the electoral officers, report of the accredited voters, list for the distribution of PVCs across the state from the INEC data base.

Lead Counsel to Oyetola and APC, Yinka Okedara while arguing the grounds of application said Oyetola contested the September 22 and 27 governorship election and was declared winner by INEC.

The tribunal in the ruling granted four out of the five reliefs sought by Oyetola and APC to inspect the materials in the presence of all interested parties and the absence of any party should not anyway hinder the inspection considering the time frame for the petition.

It also ordered that INEC should make all the documents and their personnel available between 8 am to 6pm including Saturday and Sunday.

Chairman of the tribunal however refused the request of APC and Oyetola to carry out joint inspection with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had earlier secured the order of the court to carry out similar inspection.

According to the chairman, such order will contradict the earlier order granted to PDP in October 11, 2018 by the same tribunal and such process may affect speedy filling of the petition which is the major ground of the PDP application.

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

The tribunal had earlier granted similar order of inspection to the All Progressive Alliance (APA) and its candidate Prince Adesoji Masilo and other three political parties.

The tribunal had on Thursday granted order of inspection to PDP and its candidate Senator Ademola Adeleke to inspect election materials to enable them file their petition before the tribunal.