The Ogun State governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which is currently sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital, has announced that it will determine whether to consider the issue of vote buying raised by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This declaration was made during the tribunal’s session on Tuesday. Counsel to the APC candidate, Dapo Abiodun, Taiwo Osipitan, accused the PDP and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, of engaging in vote buying in one of their motions. In response, Goddy Uche, counsel for the petitioner, accused the APC of the same offense.
Uche insisted that Abiodun, as the second respondent, should respond appropriately and noted that the allegation of vote buying was not initially included in the petition before the tribunal. However, he felt compelled to respond by pointing out that it was the APC who was responsible for the alleged vote buying.
Osipitan, contesting Uche’s position based on legal grounds, argued that the PDP should not introduce any additional allegations into their petition and requested the court to prevent any such attempts, as it would amount to an expansion of the PDP’s petition.
It should be recalled that both the APC and the PDP had accused each other of engaging in unprecedented vote buying during the governorship election held on March 18th.
Based on a petition submitted by the APC, a police investigation had earlier implicated Adebutu in alleged vote buying, involving the sum of N2 billion Naira distributed through an ATM card preloaded with N10,000 each.
Additionally, in response to a petition filed by the PDP, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, instructed the Police Commissioner in the state, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, to investigate Governor Abiodun over allegations that he distributed N5 billion on bank-linked vouchers to buy votes during the same election.
After the tribunal’s session, Osipitan stated that he would await the tribunal’s decision on the matter, as it is his duty to challenge it. Similarly, Uche commented that they had argued all the motions except one, which they would address the following day. He also mentioned their motion to dismiss the vote buying allegation made by the APC, asserting that such an allegation should not be part of their reply and requested the court to strike it out.
The Chairman of the three-man panel, Hamidu Kunaza, adjourned the proceedings to June 19th for a ruling on the motion.
