Following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) witness who was scheduled to testify regarding the conduct of the state’s governorship election on June 18 being absent, the cross-examination of listed witnesses at the Ekiti State election appeal tribunal was halted on Wednesday.
Before the three-member panel of judges, the election’s runner-up and candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Segun Oni, is contesting the win of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and governor-elect, Biodun Oyebanji.
Obafemi Adewale, SAN, the attorney representing Oni and the SDP, informed the tribunal at the start of the trial on Wednesday that the electoral commission had submitted a motion on Tuesday evening indicating their inability to conduct the election.
The counsels for Oyebanji, the APC, and the governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Akin Olujimi, SAN, and Umar Abdulhameed, cross-examined Bamidele Ekunola, the state chairman of the SDP.
In response to inquiries from the attorneys for Oyebanji and the APC during the cross-examination, the SDP chairman faulted the election while claiming that his party’s candidate received the most legitimate votes in the June 18 election.
He claimed that the ruling party and its candidate successfully induced many voters during the election.
However, the tribunal presided over by Justice Wilfred Kpochi rejected Adewale’s request to call the second witness originally scheduled for Thursday, stating that doing so would conflict with the precedents previously established before the panel.
According to Adewale, the results of the hearings on Wednesday were as follows: “We started the procedures before the tribunal today and on behalf of the petitioners, we called out the first witness, the state chairman, and he concluded delivering his evidence, of course.
We had planned to call INEC witnesses today as well, but INEC filed a move, which we assume means they do not want to appear and testify. Because they only submitted the motion on Tuesday, the hearing was postponed until Monday. On Thursday, we will continue calling witnesses.
We had planned to call one of the witnesses scheduled for Thursday, but the respondents’ attorney objected, and the tribunal ruled that it would be more orderly if the witnesses scheduled for Thursday showed up as scheduled.
The petitioner did not fully prepare for the court hearings connected to the calling of their witnesses, according to Oyebanji’s attorney, Fagbemi.
It was easy for the tribunal to deny the application in that regard because “the witnesses they had submitted to the tribunal that they would call, they could not call them, and they now wanted to venture into those that were scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) of course, that would go against the order of the tribunal earlier given,” he said.
The trial and ensuing processes were then postponed until Thursday, October 6, 2022 by Justice Kpochi.
