Ogun Tribunal Admits Adebutu’s Documents, Warns Supporters

Ogun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital has admitted the documents from the counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, led by Goddy Uche (SAN) after changing the earlier mode of presentation which was in conflict with procedure rules.

The tribunal however warned Adebutu’s supporters to stop misinforming members of the public about its proceedings.

The lead counsel to the petitioners was advised to warn his clients and their supporters against misleading the general public through sensationalised stories in the media.

The counsel to the respondents, namely: the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Dapo Abiodun and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Tuesday raised objections against the failure of the counsel to the petitioners to have presented envisaged undisputed documents through the bar before presenting same before the tribunal, to allow all parties involved in the case to verify them.

It was at that point that the tribunal mandated PDP’s counsel to go back and allow other parties in the case to scrutinise and authenticate those documents to be tendered and come back yesterday to represent.

After complying with this directive, the documents were, therefore, admitted provisionally by the tribunal, in response to the observation   of one of the Counsels to the Respondents, who hinted to the tribunal of the possibility of objections to some of the documents tendered by petitioner’s counsel.

However, while the proceedings were still on, and documents still being tendered and admitted, some media outlets mischievously reported that all documents brought by Adebutu’s team had been admitted. Therefore, a counsel to one of the respondents called the attention of the Tribunal to this misinformation describing it as propaganda about the proceedings of the panel.