The Court of Appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State has fixed Wednesday to deliver judgment on an application filed by Senator Rasidi Ladoja, governorship candidate of Accord Party in Oyo State, against the ruling of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The tribunal had on August 18 struck out an application filed by Ladoja seeking the leave of the court to call in forensic analyst sto tender the report made on the inspection of ballot papers and ballot boxes.
Ladoja had filed a petition challenging the declaration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress by the Independent National Electoral Commission as the winner of the April 11 governorship election in Oyo State.
Also joined in the petition were APC, INEC as well as its Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Rufus Akeju.
The Presiding Justice of the court, Justice M. Saulawa, fixed Wednesday for judgment after listening to the argument of all the counsel.
The counsel to Ladoja, Richard Ogunwole (SAN), told the court that the application to call in forensic analyst was brought to the court during the pre-hearing session as agreed by all the parties.
Ogunwole urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the ruling of the lower court which dismissed the application.
He submitted that all the counsel agreed that the application would be heard during the substantive hearing.
Ogunwole told the court that the forensic analyst he wanted to call was to enable the tribunal get to the root of the matter and not tie its hands.
But counsel to Ajimobi, Ayo Adesanmi, urged the court to dismiss the application, saying it lacked merit.
The counsel to APC, Wole Aina, and his INEC counterpart, Wahab Egbewole, aligned with the submission of Adesanmi and urged the court to dismiss the application.
NAN.