Ogun State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital has dismissed another application filed before it by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the March 18, 2023 election, Hon. Ladi Adebutu.
They asked the tribunal to strike out Governor Dapo Abiodun’s prayers establishing allegations of vote buying against the opposition party and its candidate.
The tribunal, headed by Justice H.N. Kunaza dismissed another application on the ground that allegations of vote buying which the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate (Abiodun) were trying to establish before it is in the same family of corrupt practices which firmed the fulcrum upon which Adebutu and PDP had earlier premised their petition against governor’s electoral victory.
Abiodun had earlier in his response to the PDP and Adebeutu’s petition, accused the applicants of engaging in electoral fraud which they allegedly perpetrated during the March 18 election in the state.
The governor had also buttressed his defense on what the federal government termed as “plethora of evidences at its disposal through discreet investigation and the confessions of some members of PDP who were caught in electoral malfeasance” in the case instituted against Adebutu, PDP, and Zenith Bank by the federal government.
In the said matter, the duo of PDP and Adebutu were accused of gross criminal conspiracy and money laundering during the polls, following which Adebutu hurriedly sneaked out of the country.
Abiodun’s response at the tribunal, which specifically indicated the degree and effects of electoral fraud committed by Adebutu and the PDP was however, unanimously admitted by the tribunal against the application seeking to strike it out, thus giving the governor another victory in the ongoing legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, Adebutu and PDP had argued that their petition did not include allegations of vote buying and so the governor’s defence should not also have included such allegations.
But in his ruling which he delivered yesterday, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Kunaza held that Abiodun was not restricted to the same issues for which Adebutu and PDP raised in their petition.
Justice Kunaza’s position was supported by the other two members of the tribunal: Justice J.B. Egele and Justice Sanusi Shehu and accordingly, dismissed their application.
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