Gboyega Oyetola, the former Governor of Osun State, was dissatisfied with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) decision to present blurry documents used by state Governor Ademola Adeleke in the 2018 elections on Thursday.
The Election Petition Tribunal hearing case was adjourned on Thursday following INEC’s decision to present blurry documents in court.
Joan Arabs, Deputy Director of INEC, presented an eight-page document containing Certified True Copies of Adeleke’s testimonial from Ede Muslim Grammar School and the West Africa Examination Council General Certificate of Education.
Last Friday, the tribunal’s panel directed the INEC chairman to bring Adeleke’s documents for the 2018 election to its next meeting.
After reviewing the documents, the petitioners’ counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, who appeared with Akin Olujinmi, informed the panel that the two pages were not clear enough.
According to Fagbemi, the section for the candidate’s GCE result scores was blank, and the school’s address that awarded the testimonial was also unclear.
The copies are clear and readable, according to INEC counsel Paul Ananaba.
He urged the plaintiffs to allow the documents to be admitted, claiming that they had CTC copies of the documents that could be presented.
Ananaba stated that she would not object to the documents if the plaintiffs presented them.
Onyeachi Ikpeazu, counsel to Adeleke and Alex Izinyon, counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party, said the documents were clear enough but admitted some sections were unclear.
They, however, stated that the documents could still be corrected and urged the petitioners to call their next witness, while INEC should be required to present clearer copies if they have them.
Ananaba later requested a halt to the proceedings to obtain screenshots of the documents from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
After the panel reconvened, Ananaba presented both colour and black-and-white copies made from screenshots obtained from INEC headquarters, which he admitted were not as good as the previous copies.
He requested an adjournment so that INEC could present the file from which the copies previously presented were made to the panel.
Fagbemi, on the other hand, insisted that the court’s order was that clear documents be presented and that the respondents follow the directive.
While reading the panel’s ruling, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertse Kume, adjourned the matter until Saturday for the INEC to bring the original file containing the documents.
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