Osun Tribunal Grants Oyetola’s Prayer for Substituted Service on Adeleke

By Yinka Kolawole

The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the High court of justice, Osogbo yesterday granted the motion exparte brought before it by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC), for a substituted service on the state governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

Governor  Oyetola had challenged the outcome of the July 16 governorship election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Adeleke as the winner.

 However, at the sitting of the tribunal yesterday  presided over by Justices Tertsea Aorga Kume, Chairman and Benedict Amangbo Ogbuli, Oyetola and the APC, through their counsel, Mr. Yomi Aliyu, pointed out that Adeleke has been evading efforts by bailiff to serve him with the petition.

According to Aliyu,  Adeleke refused to collect the document from bailiff when the court official got to his house to serve him

The bailiff was kept at the gate to wait for instruction to drop the message but the security guard later ordered the bailiff to leave as there was no instruction to collect the document and he has to leave the scene for his safety”, he added.

Meanwhile, Aliyu  in an application on behalf of the petitioners, sought an order for the plaintiffs access to the election materials, including electronic scanning of ballot papers and Voters registers used during the election among others.

While ruling on the applications, tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertsea Aorga Kume granted the application for substituted service, allowing the bailiff to paste copy of the document on the tribunal notice board for the 2nd respondent’s attention.

While Speaking to journalists at the tribunal the counsel, Aliyu promised that the tribunal  will be  fastest election petition in Nigeria because all the time hitherto spend on calling numerous witnesses will be very limited now but it will be timeous so there won’t be any problem in that.

Speaking on the state of insecurity, emphasised that the bailiff himself wrote that he could not serve and had to leave the place for his safety and you know they are burning houses in Ede town and that is why people are saying that it is insecure.

 Aliyu noted that “instead of 12 Senior Advocates today, you find only myself. The Senior Advocates felt insecure and they could not come and some other lawyers. We have about 52 lawyers and you see only five of us in court today.”

On if it’s possible to move the case out of the State, Aliyu said moving of the case depends on the tribunal, we can move to Port Harcourt, Enugu, Ibadan or any other place. Just that the tribunal will not allow anybody know where it is being moved to for security reasons.

The last time we didn’t do it in Osogbo, there was an option then whether to move it to the East or Abuja and it was moved to Abuja. This time, it could go to anywhere Aliyu posited.