Ondo Guber: AA, SDP Open Case Against Aiyedatiwa At Tribunal

As the Election Petitions Tribunal resumed sitting on Thursday in Akure, Ondo State, Action Alliance (AA) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) opened their cases as they called witnesses and tendered relevant documents in support of their petitions.

Adebayo Adewole, the attorney to AA, on resumption of the hearing, called the only witness, Adekunle Rufai.

The witness was cross-examined before the tribunal to prove the party’s petition.

The witness told the tribunal that his party, AA, would have polled the highest vote in the November 16, 2024 gubernatorial election, but said only 58 votes were allotted to his party while votes were awarded to Aiyedatiwa, the APC candidate, and was declared winner of the election by Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).

Rufai also told the tribunal that Omolere Akinuli, the governorship candidate of AA, whose name appeared on the ballot paper, was not the authentic candidate of the party.

He said: “My party scored 58 votes while INEC awarded Aiyedatiwa 366,781 votes. We would have been able to know the real results of the election in a free and fair election.”

The witness insisted that the party was not allowed to participate in the election, saying the name of the real candidate of the party was not on the ballot.

Opening its case against Governor Aiyedatiwa, INEC, and APC, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) told the tribunal that the election was marred by malpractices.

The party’s attorney, Adebayo Adewole, informed the tribunal that he wanted to withdraw the first witness presented by the SDP on grounds that she could not express herself fluently in English.

This move was objected to by the attorney to the respondents.

However, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Benson Ogbu, noted that SDP had 14 witnesses to call.

He adjourned the sitting till Friday for the continuation of the hearing.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Agboola Ajayi, had filed petition before the tribunal, challenging the victory of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of All Progressives Congress (APC)in the November 16, 2024 governorship election in the state.