Oyetola Asks Appeal Court to Set Aside Adeleke, PDP’s Victory at Tribunal

The Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has asked the Court
of Appeal in Abuja to set aside the majority judgment of the Osun
State Election Petition Tribunal which nullified his election and
declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) candidate, Ademola
Adeleke as winner of the September 2018 governorship election in
Osun State.

The tribunal had in its Judgment of March 22, 2019, voided
Oyetola’s election and ordered the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to withdraw his Certificate of Return while at
the same time ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return
to Adeleke.

However, Oyetola, who contested the last governorship election
on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted
the majority judgement delivered by Justices Peter Obiora and
Anyinla Gbolagunte.

The governor in his 39-ground Notice of Appeal filed on March
26, 2019 by his team of lawyers, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN),
claimed that the judgement was “perverse, replete with
contradictions and not supported by evidence led by the
petitioners”.

He therefore asked the appellate court to uphold his appeal, set
aside the majority judgment and dismiss the October 16, 2018
petition by PDP and Adeleke.

The governor said his complaint, in the appeal, was against the
entire majority judgment, except where the tribunal held that it
lacked jurisdiction to set aside INEC Guidelines; that the
allegation of over voting was not proved; that the petitioners did
not prove voided votes and other parts of the judgment where the
tribunal agreed with their arguments.

Oyetola is contending, in his first ground of appeal, that the
entire majority judgment is a nullity, because it was written and
delivered by Justice Obiora “who did not participate in all the
proceedings of the tribunal and who was not present when all the
witnesses gave evidence.”

He noted that Justice Obiora was absent on February 6 this year
when the respondents witnesses (RWs) 12 and 13 – Ayoola Soji and
Oladejo Kazeem – testified and tendered exhibits, which the
tribunal admitted in evidence.

The appellant argued that, having not attended the tribunal’s
siting on February 6, 2019, Justice Obiora could not have seen the
two witnesses and was unable to examine their demeanour, as
required, and therefore, unlawful for the judge to have authored a
judgment in which he reviewed the evidence given by the
witnesses.

He said: “The writing of and or the participation of the
honourable justice P. C. Obiora in the writing of the judgment of
the lower tribunal of 22nd March 2019 and delivery of same,
vitiates the entire judgment.”

Oyetola also argued that the tribunal, in its majority judgment,
erred in law and acted without jurisdiction when it accepted the
petitioners’ complained of non compliance with the provisions of
Electoral Act in relation to the September 22, 2018 governorship
election in Osun State and on that basis proceeded to nullify the
victory of Oyetola and APC.

It was equally the appellant’s contention that the tribunal
acted without jurisdiction by basing its decision to uphold the
petition and set aside the return of the appellants on the basis of
allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, in relation to
the September 22 governorship election.

Recruitment: Nigeria Immigration Service Issues
Warning

The attention of the Comptroller General of the Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede (MFR), has been drawn
to a fake dedicated website, www.nisrecruitment.com.ng^[1], where unsuspecting
members of the public are required to make payment for accessing
application forms for recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration
Service.

The Comptroller General wishes to state that the Service is not
recruiting and has not engaged any agent or vendor to do so on her
behalf.

The general public is to note that the said website and the
application process are fake and entirely the handiwork of
fraudsters.

The Service is using this medium to advise the general public to
disregard the said Recruitment Exercise and to also be wary of such
fraudulent adverts as all official correspondence on the Service
are done via the official website: www.immigration.gov.ng^[2]

SIGNED

DCI Sunday James
Service Public Relations Officer
For: Comptroller General of Immigration