THE Oyo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Ibadan on
Monday, reserved indefinitely the judgment in a petition brought by the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the state governor, Senator
Abiola Ajimobi,
in which the party alleged that the governor holds dual citizenship and
as such, is not qualified to stand election into the office of the state
governor.
The chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Mu’azu Abdulkadiri
Pindiga reserved judgment in the petition indefinitely after all lawyers
for the parties to the petition had closed their cases after adopting
their final written addresses in the case.
In a brief address while adopting the petitioner’s written address,
its lead counsel, Mr Nathaniel Oke, SAN, argued that none of the
respondents in the petition, Senator Ajimobi, the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC),
called any witness for the purpose of debunking evidentially, the case
as presented by the petitioner in the petition.
He urged the tribunal that mere assertion by the respondent, in opposition to the case of the petitioner, was not enough.
“As a result of this, the tribunal should allow our petition and
grant the reliefs being claimed because we have discharged the minimum
burden of proof by the applicable laws,” Oke further submitted.
Responding, the lead counsel for Governor Ajimobi and the ACN, Mr
Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, referred to the written address of the petitioner
and submitted that the third issue formulated by the petitioner was an
appeal against the decision of the tribunal, which should have gone to
the Court of Appeal.
He added that the petition against the second respondent should be
struck out because there was no proper service on the said respondent.
Akeredolu further urged the tribunal that the petitioner said nothing
to prove his petition, adding that as a result of this, there was no
need to debunk anything.
“There must be a strict proof that the first respondent is not a
Nigerian. All the documents they brought to the tribunal indicated that
the first respondent is a Nigerian,” Akeredolu submitted.
Source
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