The Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who is the second respondent in a petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, before the State Election Petition Tribunal, on Tuesday, closed his case in defence of the petition.
Adebutu had approached the court to seek justice over alleged manipulation in the March 18 governorship elections.
The petitioner, in the petition marked, EPT/OG/GOV/03/2023 accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of non-compliance to the Electoral Act and corrupt practices during the election.
In his defence, Abiodun accused Adebutu of engaging in vote buying which according to him led to “willful disruption” of the election by suspected thugs.
The second respondent, who opened his defence last Friday, called a total of six witnesses in all.
The witnesses included an official of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), a staff of Zenith Bank, voters and party agents.
Abiodun also tendered hundreds of documents as evidence to prove his case.
Some of the documents tendered by Abiodun included: his West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate, the report of the production of 200,000 units of top-up ATM cards, a letter of authority from the petitioner to open a Zenith bank account from which the top-up cards were preloaded with N10,000 each and a paper showing the sample of the preloaded cards.
Counsel to Abiodun, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), at the resumed hearing on Tuesday, called Solomon Abiodun Sanyaolu, the former Director General of Dapo Abiodun governorship campaign committee to give evidence in support of Abiodun’s case.
Olanipekun also sought the permission of the Tribunal to tender through the bar, the report of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), a Police investigation report in response to a case of bribery, conspiracy undue influence of thugs, dated 12 May, 2023 and updated Police investigation report on a case of bribery, conspiracy, undue influence, dated 7 June, 2023.
The three-man panel, led by Hamidu Kunaza admitted the documents and marked them as evidence.
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