The Supreme Court will on May 27 rule on the appeal filed by Senator Iyiola Omisore, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the decision of Court of Appeal Akure Division which affirmed the election of Rauf aregbesola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2014 governorship election in Osun state.
The Court on Thursday reserved the judgment after counsel to the parties had adopted their briefs of arguments and addressed the court on the merit of their case.
Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), lead counsel to the appellant, Iyiola Omisore told the court to set aside the concurrent judgments of Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal and Court of Appeal Akure as there were no concurrent findings. He prayed the court to nullify the August 9, 2014 governorship for its irregularities.
Citing the Tribunal’s record, Izinyon (SAN), said the tribunal identified the irregularities which marred the election but failed to pronounce on it. “Court of Appeal did not make any finding as it ought to do in respect of the alleged irregularities,” he submitted.
On his part, lead counsel to Governor Aregbesola, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal and allow his cross – appeal for the simple reason that the 2nd respondents (All Peoples Progressive Congress) was never a party to the petition. He maintained that the appellant changed the name of the party without leave of the court.
He also urged the court to dismiss the appeal because out of the 43 witnesses who testified at the tribunal only seven witnesses were party agents while “the rest who claimed to be supervisors gave ‘hear say’ evidences and agreed at the tribunal that the entering they made in the result sheets were false”
Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Adegboyinga Awomolo (SAN) who represented the All Progressive Congress(APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),respectively also prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and allow the cross- appeal.
Earlier during the hearing the presiding justice, Justice John Fadiyi had overruled the objection raised by Chief Olujimi that the appellant briefs were an abuse of Court process.
Justice Fadiyi directed that instead of withdrawing any of the two briefs it should be marked FC 204 and FC 204A for easy identification.