I didn’t lose Governorship election, Akinlade tells Tribunal

The Ogun State Governorship Election Tribunal, sitting in Abeokuta, the State capital on Thursday grilled the Governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adekunle Akinlade for three hours.

Akinlade was the 37th Prosecution Witness (PW) to give evidence before Justice Yusuf Halihu – led panel over the petition challenging the victory of Governor Dapo Abiodun during the March 9 election.

Akinlade, the first petitioner told the Tribunal that Abiodun, the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) lied on oath following the alleged irregularities in his (Abiodun) nomination forms of 2015 and 2019.

Akinlade was led in evidence by Ahmed Raji (SAN) and cross-examined by the respondents’ Counsel, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), Adeyinka Olumide (SAN) and Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN).

Abiodun’s nomination forms when he contested senatorial seat in 2015 and the gubernatorial election in 2019 were tendered and admitted and admitted in evidence.

According to Akinlade, the March 9 polls were fraught with overvoting, improper votes counting and alleged non – compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

He equally told the panel that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not fair in the conduct of the polls as the results declared did not reflect the outcome of the election.

Akinlade insisted, “I did not lose the election, he (Abiodun) did not defeat me. After March 9 election, we did our reviews and analysis, then we discovered there was illegality”.

“My Lord, I want the Tribunal to do justice to the petition. There were irregularities in the nomination forms of the second respondent. The second lied on oath.”

Earlier on, the Tribunal had admitted in evidence, Certified True Copy of Smart Card Reader reports, Voters’ Register used for the election and 20 local governments election results.

The matter was adjourned till July 5 (today) for continuation of the hearing.