Supreme Court on Monday reserved judgement on the appeal filed by former governor Gboyega Oyetola against the election of Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, just as the Court questioned Counsel to the former governor for his attempts to deceive the court with his silence over importance of physical BVAS machine to the election over and above server report, in line with the electoral act as amended.
Apparently dazed by the question, Oyetola’s Counsel stuttered and rigmaroled as he could not proffer any reasonable response to the query which is cardinal for the determination of the appeal.
The proceedings which lasted less than one hour saw the apex Court streamlining all the five appeals into one, basis on which judgement will be delivered.
Counsel to Governor Ademola Adeleke, the PDP as well as INEC, while adopting their separate briefs already with the Court, urged the lord Justices of the apex Court to discountenance attempts by the APC and Governor Gboyega to hijack the popular mandate of the people of Osun State in an election they did not win, describing Oyetola and APC’s appeals as tantamount to an unserious hunter looking for the legs of a snake.
The learned counsel wondered why the APC are hell bent in re-writing the law by trying to shift burden of proof of their own allegations on the respondents.
According to them, the new electoral act does not envisage a situation where respondents, particularly in election matters would assume position of discharging burden of proof.Â
Such a situation, according to the counsel, sounds unreasonable by a desperate thief caught pants down in the very act. Adeleke’s counsel therefore entreated the Court to throw away the appeals, saying Oyetola and APC only want to eat a pie in the skye.
PeoplesmindÂ
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