Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun and PDP governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Ogun State Election Petitions Tribunal has announced Saturday, September 30, 2023, for judgement in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu.
The tribunal communicated the date to the concerned parties on Thursday morning.
Adebutu and PDP are challenging the declaration of the Ogun State Governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dapo Abiodun, as winner of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Abiodun the winner of the contest.
According to the commission, the APC candidate scored 276,298 votes, while his nearest rival, Adebutu, polled 262,383 votes to come second, thus trailing the winner with 13,915 votes.
Dissatisfied with the declaration, the PDP candidate rejected the outcome and approached the tribunal to declare him as the lawfully elected governor of Ogun.
PDP governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu and Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun
On September 4, 2023, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Hamidu Kunaza, reserved judgement shortly after the two parties adopted their written addresses.
Adopting his address, Abiodun’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), asked the court to dismiss the PDP petition for lacking in merit and a mere academic exercise.
He noted that the sole petitions of the petitioners were not duly signed and stamped and, therefore lacked merit to be adopted and should be stuck out.
In his counter-argument, Counsel to Adebutu, Chris Uche (SAN) argued that all documents presented by the petitioners were obtained from INEC.
Adopting his final written address, Uche urged the tribunal to declare the petitioner winner of the governorship election.
The petitioner’s lawyer equally urged the tribunal to remove a total number of 40, 871 votes from Abiodun’s polled votes and order a rerun in the 99 polling units where elections were allegedly disrupted.
“We are very happy that today we have adopted our final written addresses in support of our petition. And we have asked the court based on the overwhelming evidence which we have advised both orally and documentary,” Uche said at the time.
“And we are asking the court to give judgement to the petitioners, Ladi Adebutu and PDP because we have overwhelmingly proven our case. And this case we have brought all the documents certified by INEC and even witnesses called by INEC. So we have done our bit and the matter has been adjourned for judgement at a later date.”
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