Ademola Adeleke, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor-elect in Osun State and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have hired eight Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) and 45 other lawyers to represent them at the governorship election petitions tribunal.
The three respondents’ legal team will be led by well-known election legal experts such as Alex Ezion, Onyechi Ikpeazu, Nathaniel Oke, Kehinde Ogunwumiju and Paul Ananaba, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
Kolapo Alimi, Deputy Director of the Adeleke Campaign Council, told newsmen that the PDP had assembled the legal team to ‘thrash’ Oyetola and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC’s petition.
According to Alimi, Oyetola’s petition at the tribunal is just a waste of the ‘precious time’ of the judiciary.
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It will be recalled that the PDP last week filed and submitted its defence to Oyetola’s petition at the tribunal, praying the court to dismiss the petition.
According to the PDP, the governor’s petition is frivolous and baseless.
The response was submitted to the tribunal by the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the PDP, Adekunle Akindele.
Akindele told the tribunal that Adeleke convincingly won the election and was duly declared the winner, stating that there was no over-voting in any of the polling units being challenged by Oyetola and the APC.
He asked the election tribunal to dismiss Oyetola’s petition, maintaining that the election was free, fair and credible without any iota of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022.
