The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal has issued a fresh order, directing the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to produce the certificates and other documents of Governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke used in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
The order followed the failure of Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the commission to produce the certificates in the previous sitting and arguments of counsel to INEC, Prof Paul Ananaba, Adeleke and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that the Subpoena issued was addressed to REC not Chairman of the commission who is in custody of the certificates.
The panel, which was chaired by Justice Tertsea Kume after listening to the argument of the counsel to Oyetola and other respondents, adjourned ruling till today.
Reading the ruling on Friday, the tribunal said an application for Subpoena is in Administrative Act and when it is granted, it becomes Judicial Act and the party upon which the Subpoena is issued must comply, citing Section 218 and 219 of the evidence act.
The tribunal further held that the request by the respondents that the petitioners should continue with the calling of the witness whose testimony is hanged on the Adeleke’s credentials was baseless, as the petitioners has the absolute prerogative on how to conduct their case.
The panel said the application was consequent to the failures of the state REC of the commission to produce the documents requested in the Subpoena.
According to the ruling, the Petitioners’ have shown sufficient reasons for the tribunal to compel the National Chairman of INEC to produce the documents in question.
It then dismissed all the objections raised by the counsel for INEC, Adeleke and PDP and compelled the National Chairman of the commission to produce the documents in the next sitting of the panel on Thursday, December 1, 2022.
