Tribunal: Oyetola kicks as INEC presents blurry Adeleke’s testimonial

A mild drama ensued at the Election Petition Tribunal where issues concerning the July 16 governorship election in Osun State were being held.

At the resumption of proceedings on Thursday, December 1, 2022, the panel was forced into adjournment after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) presented blurry documents used by the Governor, Ademola Adeleke, for 2018 elections.

The eight-page documents tendered by INEC's Deputy Director, Joan Arabs, included Certified True Copies of the testimonial obtained by Adeleke from Ede Muslim Grammar School, and West African Examination Council General Certificate of Education.

This follows the panel ruling last week Friday that the chairman of the electoral commission should provide Adeleke's filings for 2018 poll on its next sitting.

Meanwhile, after close inspection of the documents presented by INEC on Thursday, counsel to the petitioners, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who appeared with Akin Olujinmi, told the panel that two out of the pages were ineligible.

According to Fagbemi, the section containing scores obtained by the candidate on the GCE result was blank as well as the address of the school that awarded the testimonial.

However, while urging the plaintiffs to allow the documents to be admitted, counsel to INEC, Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, argued that the copies were clear and readable enough.

Ananaba said, since the plaintiffs had earlier claimed to have CTC copies of the documents, he won't object to the documents if presented by the plaintiffs.

Counsel representing Adeleke and the Peoples Democratic Party, Onyeachi Ikpeazu, SAN and Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, respectively also argued that the documents were clear enough while admitting that some sections were blurry.

The two SANs, however, said the documents can still be rectified and urged the petitioners to call their witnesses while INEC should be made to provide clearer copies, provided they have it.

The INEC counsel consequently requested for the matter to be stood down to enable him obtain screenshots of the documents from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

After the panel reconvened, Ananaba presented both coloured and black and white copies made from the screenshots obtained from INEC head office, which he himself admitted were not any better that the copies earlier presented.

He asked the panel to adjourn proceedings to give INEC the produce the file from which the earlier copies presented were made from.

Tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertse Kume, who read the ruling of the panel, announced the adjournment of the matter till Saturday, December 3, 2022 for the commision to present original file containing the document.