INEC presents blurry Adeleke’s certificates used in 2018 elections to Osun Tribunal as Oyetola kicks
The Election Petition Tribunal hearing case emanating from the July 16 governorship election in Osun State was forced into adjournment on Thursday following the presentation of blurry documents used by Governor Ademola Adeleke for the 2018 elections.
The eight-page documents presented by a Deputy Director of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Joan Arabs, included Certified True Copies of the testimonial obtained by Adeleke from Ede Muslim Grammar School, and West Africa Examination Council General Certificate of Education.
The panel had last week Friday ruled that the INEC chairman should bring Adeleke’s filings for the 2018 poll on its next sitting.
At the day’s proceedings, after checking the documents presented by INEC, counsel to the petitioners, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who appeared with Akin Olujinmi, SAN, told the panel that two out of the pages were not clear enough.
Fagbemi said the section for scores obtained by the candidate on the GCE result was blank, adding that the address of the school that awarded the testimonial was not also clear enough.
But counsel to INEC, Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, said the copies were clear and readable, urging the plaintiffs to allow the documents to be admitted since they had earlier claimed that they had CTC copies of the documents which could be presented.
He assured not to object to the documents if presented by the plaintiffs.
Counsel to Adeleke and Peoples Democratic Party, Onyeachi Ikpeazu, SAN and Dr Alex Izinyon, SAN, respectively said the documents were clear enough but admitted some sections were blurry.
They, however, said the documents were still rectifiable and urged the petitioners to call their next witness, while INEC should be made to present clearer copies if they have.
Ananaba later called for a stand down of the matter to enable him to obtain screenshots of the documents from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
After the panel had reconvened, Ananaba presented both colour and back and white copies made from the screenshots obtained from INEC head office, which he also admitted were not better than the copies earlier presented.
He sought an adjournment to enable INEC to bring before the panel, the file from which the copies earlier presented were made from.
Fagbemi, however, insisted that the order of the court was that clear documents should be presented, saying the respondents must comply with the directive.
Reading the ruling of the panel, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertse Kume, adjourned the matter till Saturday for the INEC to bring the original file containing the documents.
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