Ogun Poll Tribunal Rejects Adebutu’s Vote Buying Petition Against Governor Abiodun
Ogun state governorship poll petition tribunal has dismissed the application of vote buying, during the March 18, 2023 governorship poll, filed by the state PDP candidate, Ladi Adebutu.
Adebutu filed the vote buying application against governor Dapo Abioldun and the Ogun State APC, as part of its ongoing challenge of the outcome of the poll.
Last may 22, Adebutu in his reply to the governor’s defence, had accused him of buying votes during the poll.
Lead counsel of the governor, Chief Wole Olanipekun, had earlier made a similar allegation against Adebutu, backed with police report that Adebutu engaged in vote buying during the poll.
The governor’s lead counsel, Prof Taiwo Osopitan, asked the tribunal to dismiss Adebutu’s allegation,or remove it from his petition.
The tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Kunaza, ruled that Adebutu ought to have included the allegation of vote buying in his original petition.
He dismissed the vote buying allegation by Adebutu, recalling that the governor made his own allegation when he joined issue with the petition, filed by adebutu challenging the outcome of the governorship poll.
Justice Kunaza adds that the tribunal would only entertain vote buying allegation made by the governor against Adebutu and the PDP.
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Speaking to journalists after the ruling, a member of Mr Adebutu’s legal team, Olumuyiwa Obanewa, said the team would study the ruling and decide whether or not to file an appeal.
Mr Obanewa said, “The position of the tribunal is that the reply that we filed to the reply of the second respondent, who is the governor of Ogun State,
that the reply raises issues that the second respondent would have no opportunity to respond to, and therefore those issues would not be allowed.
The petition is still competent, and the reply filed by respondents is still competent.
“In the reply of the second respondent, they raised the issue of vote-buying, and in our own attempt to respond to those issues, because we believed
those issues were not in our own petition originally,
so, if you are now raising the issue of vote-buying and we have the opportunity of also saying that you were also involved in vote-buying, we should be free to bring out those issues.
“But in the ruling, the court didn’t agree with us totally. We will look at the ruling; if there is a need for us to appeal against that ruling, we will do that.”
Also, a lawyer in Mr Abiodun’s legal team, Deji Enisehin, said, “The petitioner tried to bring in some new facts which ordinarily should have been part of the petition while responding to the second respondent’s reply.
We objected to that, and the court agreed with us in line with the principle.”
