From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The election petition tribunal sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, on Thursday rose twice to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) produce a clear certificate and testimonial of the second respondent, Governor Ademola Adeleke.
But, the INEC counsel led by Prof Paul Ananaba SAN, could not produce a clearer one and sought adjournment.
Ananaba SAN had informed the panel that the subpoena order has been answered, saying that the INEC chairman sent Deputy Director, Mrs. Joan Arabs, with the Certified True Copies of the documents.
He applied that the bearer of the message should be allowed to go as she has a flight to catch to Abuja and the tribunal admitted the documents.
But, the lead counsel to the petitioners, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, said they paid N305,000 for the documents only to discover that two pages of the documents are not legible.
Ananaba said “INEC has produced the documents. I can’t answer if legible or not.
Fagbemi responded that the scores of the candidate on the certificate were not clear, saying “we feel worried and frustrated that INEC did not bring clean copies of the documents. The scores are not on the certificate brought and we won’t manage the documents brought by INEC which is not legible.
“Also in the testimonial, the address of the school attended was missing. So, the legible certificates must be produced.”
Ananaba thereby suggested that INEC in Abuja can be contacted and a screenshot of the document can be obtained within 1 hour and the tribunal stood down for 1 hour, 30 minutes.
When the tribunal reconvened, Ananaba hinted that photographs of the documents have been received from INEC, saying “it was not better than the one we have already. If the petitioners have better copies, they can bring them. We won’t object to it.”
The action forced the tribunal to adjourn for the second time to enable the respondent to produce clearer documents.
However, INEC could not produce the documents and Justice Tertze Kume adjourned the matter till Saturday, 3rd December for the documents to be presented in court.