By Gbenga Olarinoye

OSOGBO—OSUN State Election Petition Tribunal has adjourned till January 28 for the adoption of final addresses, as the All Progressives Congress APC and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, closed their defences yesterday.

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP and its candidate in the August 9, 2014 governorship election, Iyiola Omisore are challenging the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola before the Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime-led tribunal.

The APC counsel, Ajibola Basiru at the resumed hearing of the petition told the three-man panel of the decision of his client to close the case, having reviewed the evidences and found out that no case has been made by the petitioners.

Subsequently, counsel to INEC, Ayotunde Ogunleye opened his defence and tendered the Certified True Copies CTC of Form EC8E (overal result declaration form), summary of the Permanent Voters Cards Distribution list and the certificate of the list .

While counsel to other respondents raised no objection to the admissibility of the documents, the petitioner counsel, Nathaniel Oke, SAN, raised objection to only the Certificate of the PVCs Distribution List on the ground that it was not front loaded.

Replying, the INEC counsel said the PVCs Distribution List was frontloaded, but because it was printed from computer, its certificate was produced as provided by law, arguing that the objection could not be sustainable.

Subsequently, the tribunal admitted the document as exhibits 395, 396 and 397 respectively.

After the document had been admitted, the INEC counsel applied to close the case of the commission without calling any witness, saying, “we apply to close our case upon the evaluation of the case made out by the petitioner, coupled with evidence we have extracted from the witnesses called so far by other respondents and the petitioner”.