Osun state PDP has accused Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressive Congress (APC) of deliberate evasion of service.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had announced former Senator Ademola Adeleke as winner of the gubernatorial election held in the state on July 16.
Adeleke was the PDP gubernatorial candidate in the said gubernatorial election while Oyetola was the APC guber candidate.
Governor Oyetola had however challenged the declaration of Adeleke as winner of the guber election and also joined the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Peoples Democratic Party in the suit.
The Osun state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is headed by Justice Tertsea Kume.
Osun state PDP that had made its response to the petition submitted by the APC and Governor Oyetola available has accused the respondents of avoiding service.
Osun state PDP has described as petty and childish the attitude of the APC in respect of their petition.
The party submitted in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com on Friday by Hashim Abioye, Esq, that this has offended the sensibilities of the Osun electorate and an affront to due judicial process.
‘It is an antithesis that Oyetola and the APC ,who had made a lot of noise about service on the Governor-elect, are now the ones playing hide and seek when it is their turn to be served.
It is more worrisome that those , who had through their counsels supplied an address for service in the petition they filed, have now instructed their lawyers not to accept service of the reply.
The PDP gathered that the bailiff was at the office of one of Oyetola’s counsels whose address was subscribed in the petition on Thursday 25th August, 2022, only for the said counsel to tell the bailiff that his office was close for the day and that the bailiff should come back today Friday 26th August, 2022 by 11am.
At about the appointed time, the bailiff was at the lawyer’s office but he told the bailiff on phone that he had travelled. The PDP finds the attitude of the lawyer as most unethical and unbecoming of a legal practitioner.
The lawyer should not have put his contact as the address for service instead of playing a dirty game about service in a petition initiated by his clients.
The PDP therefore opined that the APC and Oyetola met what they did not bargain for in the reply filed by the party, hence the smart game of non-availability for service by their Lawyers.
It is even surprising that one of the counsels to Oyetola earlier declared that the petition will be the fastest in the history of election petitions in Nigeria, and the PDP is trying to assist them in making it as fast as possible by filing her reply within 14 days instead of 21 days, only for the counsel to Oyetola and APC to evade service.
The PDP has therefore instructed her formidable team of legal experts to immediately swing into action to find an alternative means of serving the reply on the petitioners’ the party submitted- Team@orientactualmags.com
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