Osun Tribunal Verdict: Adeleke’s Lawyers Move To Get Certificate Of Return

Against the backdrop of Friday’s court judgement in Abuja by the election petition tribunal, which declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke as the winner of September 22 governorship poll in Osun, the legal team of Adeleke has begun moves to get the certificate of return issued to its client.

Delivering
its judgment, the tribunal had nullified the election that produced the
All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Gboyega Oyetola as the
governor of Osun State and subsequently ordered the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to
Adeleke.

Findings by Tribune Online indicated that necessary
arrangements were being made by Adeleke’s legal team to ensure that INEC
complies with the court order with the service of the court order on
the electoral umpire.

Speaking to our correspondent during a
telephone chat, one of the lead counsels to Adeleke, Barrister Edmond
Biriomoni said “right about now, INEC should have been served because
the bailiff of the court or the tribunal had actually went to effect
service of the tribunal’s judgment on INEC. We have already gotten the
copy of the order and the bailiff had gone to serve them (INEC)
officially.”

When asked about the plan by the APC and Oyetola to
file an appeal against the judgment, he contended that “they are yet to
file an appeal. They are yet to lodge a formal appeal. The appeal they
are referring to is on the pages of newspapers or on their press
release.
They have not filed a formal appeal at the tribunal. This is because I am just leaving the tribunal right now.”

Biriomoni
continued “the order of the tribunal still subsist even when they go to
the Court of Appeal except they set it aside. Until the Court of Appeal
overrules the tribunal, the judgment subsist. Whether they file a
notice or not, that does not take away the validity of the judgment
until it is overruled by the appellant court, either the Court of Appeal
or the Supreme Court.”

It would be recalled that the Osun
election petition tribunal, sitting in Abuja had on Friday nullified the
election of Oyetola as the governor of Osun State, cancelling results
from 17 polling units over the alteration of results by INEC while it
also deducted 2,029 votes of the APC and 1,246 votes of the PDP.

Source:- Tribuneonlineng