• They are lying – APC counsel

Shina Abubakar

The Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chided Governor Oyetola and the All Progressive Congress (APC) for deliberately evading court service in response to the petition earlier filed by the ruling party.

In a statement signed by Hashim Abioye on behalf of the party’s caretaker committee on Friday, it alleged that counsel to Oyetola and the APC started playing on the intelligence of the Tribunal by deliberately evading service of reply filed by the PDP and INEC in response to Oyetola and APC’s petition.

It reads in part, “It is an antithesis that the duo of Oyetola and the APC who have been making so much noises about service on the Governor-elect are now the ones playing hide and seek when it is their turn to be served. It is more worrisome that the duo whose counsel has supplied an address for service in the petition they filed has now instructed their lawyer not to accept service of the reply.

“The PDP gathered that the bailiff of the Tribunal was at the office of one of Oyetola’s counsel whose address was subscribed in the petition on Thursday 25th August, 2022, only for the counsel to tell the bailiff that his office was close for the day and that the bailiff should come back today Friday 26th August, 2022, at 11am.

“At about the said time, the Tribunal bailiff was at the lawyer’s office but he told the bailiff on phone that he had travelled. The PDP finds the attitude of the lawyer as most unethical and unbecoming of a legal practitioner.

Reacting counsel to APC and Oyetola, Muhydeen Adeoye, said the PDP legal team is lying, saying they were not put in notice of coming to serve them with the reply.

“It is unfortunate they are saying that. I was in the office till close of work yesterday (Thursday). We were not put on notice that they would be coming. They later called that they wanted to serve us their reply and I told them that we have closed. We were in the office today.

“We waited but we didn’t see them. I was billed to travel. The bailif later called and I told him I would come around to pick the reply”, he added.