Ajimobi: Tribunal reserves judgment on dual citizenship

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