Hottestgistnaija.com
*You are not making any sense in your submission, Judge to Wole Olanipekun
*You should have Defended allegation of Doctored results at Tribunal,Judge to Yusuf Ali
*Dont Twist or Mislead us on Cross Appeal,Judge to Akin Olujinmi
The Appeal against the ruling of Osun governorship election Tribunal today took off on a sad note for the Appellants namely Gboyega Oyetola, the All Progressive Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC. From the three Appeals to the cross Appeal by Senator Ademola Adeleke , it was a rolling show of Judicial bashing for Oyetola,APC and INEC.
The Appellants’ Counsel staggered from one error to the other amidst muddling of presentations and out of context legal submissions, prompting the judges to on several occasions intervene to correct and even frown at obvious misrepresentations, misinformation and irrelevant arguments by the Counsel for Appellants.
As the three Appeals and cross Appeal proceeded one after the other, the counsels to the Appellants and the cross Respondents descended into legal confusion with even the legal juggernauts among them, Wole Olanipekun SAN, Akin Olunjinmi SAN and Yusuf Alli SAN engaging in what the judges considered to be legal ramblings and obvious irrelevances.
At today’s sitting ,the judges had reason to chide and call to order the appellant’s counsels for more than 12 times such that at a point ,one of the judges exploded:”we are not making sense of your submission at all.
“You tend to be everywhere .You are citing pages and pages and we are not getting the point you are making. You need to be more concise “,the panel chairperson, Justice J.H. Sankey pointedly told Wole Olanipekun SAN.
As though ruffled by the calm disposition and legal intellectualism displayed by respondents’ legal team comprising of Dr Emeka Ikpeazu,SAN,Dr Ananaba,SAN,N.O.Oke,SAN ,Ogunwumiju,SAN,the counsels to the appellants got trapped in many legal holes and on many occasions, the judges had to pull them out to safe the integrity of the learned silks.
The proceedings had taken off on a good note with the panel chairperson promising accelerated hearing. Senator Ademola Adeleke and Gboyega Oyetola were sitting facing each other both wearing white with Adeleke’s white garments reinforced by that of his deputy,Albert Adeogun. In a very tense seven hour hearing punctuated by only 10 minutes recess, the sitting commenced with the first appeal.
To the shock and apprehension of the chamber, Olanipekun launched the first Appeal apparently focussing only on line of argument – that the Judge who delivered the majority ruling at the lower court was not present on a particular day of the hearing. Scrambling to cite authorities to back up his claim, it became obvious that the Appellants have no defence against the substance of the Tribunal judgement.
The respondent’s counsel, Ikpeazu SAN responding on this point affirmed that the issue in question is about conflict of court records as Justice Obiorah was cited in the proceedings of the said date even though he did not sign. To nail Olanipekun who had built a castle in the air ,Ikpeazu declared that the Appellants should have filed an affidavit to inquire from the judge and to clarify the conflict in the court records. The issue he said cannot be simply settled by assumption of the appellant’s Lawyers. Justice Obiorah he said should be given fair hearing to know exactly what happen on the said day.
Ikpeazu SAN by raising the issue of conflict in court records and the need for affidavits to get clarification from the Judge punctured the major plank of appellant’s case. All efforts to reset the matter failed as the respondent submitted several authorities to prove that the issue of a Judge’s absence cannot be determined without hearing from the judge.
On the second Appeal, Olanipekun run into troubled water when he posited that the respondent, Ademola Adeleke is seeking to be declared winner on the basis of September 22 poll which has been declared inconclusive. The Tribunal he said exceeded its authority by reframing reliefs and granting such adding that the
petitioner did not plead categorically.
Plunging further into self deviced legal trap,Olujinmi posited that the respondent attacked September 27 poll to win the September 22nd election,affirming that the respondent did not plead non-compliance in September 22 election .He noted that non compliance of September 27 cannot be used to gain advantage on September 22,adding that the Tribunal relied on certified true copies of forms ec8a dumped on the court to compare and take decision.
The legal sophistry and manipulative proposition by Olujinmi was immediately buried by Dr Ikpeazu who methodically and calmly demolished the legal lies built and packaged by Olujinmi. Ikpeazu SAN submitted that the APGA case cited by Olujinmi is not applicable to the Osun case. In the APGA case,there was no return on the election,so the court held that the election where there was no return cannot be adjudicated upon.
In the case of Osun,he said there was a return with Senator Adeleke winning by majority votes and satisfying the local government spread conditional requirements to be declared. The respondents submission he said was that on the basis of September 22nd poll which was announced by the electoral commission, Ademola Adeleke should have been declared Winner . In other words ,the rerun was illegal as the constitutional requirement has been and satisfied by one of the contestants.
Ikpeazu declared further that contrary to Olujinmi’s submission ,the respondent pleaded both September 22nd and 27th polls in the petition. Citing relevant authorities ,he argued that no election is complete until a winner is declared. Hence,the respondent filed the petitions after the violently rigged rerun.
In what appears like a legal lecture on election petition,Ikpeazu passionately argued and submit with judges taken copious notes and with Oyetola on the VIP desk looking worryingly at the exceptional brilliance of the respondents lawyer.
On the third Appeal,the INEC lawyer,Yusuf Ali was confronted with probably one of his worst legal outing. First his presentation was devoid of seriousness to the extent that the panel chairman jokingly said the learned silk is only entertaining the court.
He hinged his submission on the fact that the tribunal was wrong to have held that INEC should have called witnesses to defend the doctoring and mutilation of results sheets. He struggled and laboured to proof that form EC8A is not very important and that ballot accounting is irrelevant in an election.
As he was making his submission,the judges were questioning his lines of thought even before the respondents reacted .One of the judges questioned him about why INEC failed to react to the many allegations at the trial stage during the life of the suit at the lower court. He responded by saying the burden of proof is on the Petitioner. At that point,a judge fired at him and said: “you should have vigorously defended the allegations against INEC at the tribunal”
Another judge told Ali SAN that INEC should have invited witnesses and also explained why the results sheets were altered.
Responding Ipkeazu affirmed that there was no contradiction in the ruling of the tribunal over the issue of non-compliance. He said the burden of proof shift only after the accused has made his submission. In this case he said INEC failed to explain the disparity between certified true copies and pink copies of ec8a which are results from the wards.
On the issue of powers of the tribunal to cancel and declare results, Olujinmi failed in his bid to prove that the tribunal has no power despite citing the ruling of the court. He even produced a 2015 version of the electoral act ,positing that the court ruling by Justice Kolawole striking that section 140 (2) of the electoral act has no effect. Olanipekun added his own by saying the ruling is overtaken by events.
Midway,the judges questioned the submission before Ikpeazu jailed the coffin by asserting that as at today ,the ruling and the judgement remains especially as there has been no appeal against it. The panel Judges even concurred with the respondent’s submission.
A major high point of the hearing today was the hearing on the cross Appeal when the counsel to Adeleke ,Kehinde Ogunwumiju,SAN made his presentation submitting that the court should add six 6 witnesses rejected at the tribunal and add their testimony to the hearing. He submitted that granting the prayers will increase the margin of win of his client, Adeleke.
In a major show of legal mastery,the SAN took on Wole Olanipekun,Akin Olujinmi and Yusif Ali,knocking lives out of their presentations and submitting that the panel should allow the cross Appeal.
By the time the hearing closed around 4:30pm, it was clear that the appeal has probably failed and that the cross Appeal has strong prospects. Olanipekun left the premises frowning while Oyetola hurriedly left without speaking with the press. Ajibola Ajibola Bashir was clearly rattled while the well mobilised APC members left in clearly very sad mood.
Senator Ademola Adeleke was thronged by well wishers.
The names of the panel members are J H Sankey, A. D. Yahaya, I G Mbaba, Justice Akeju and BG Sanga.
