Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s legal team on Friday described as baseless and unfounded the allegations raised by Osun state PDP that the governor’s lawyers and that of his party; the Osun All Progressives Congress, APC, avoided service.
The legal team added that being in a hurry to see that the trial commences soon , they could not have deployed any delay tactics, adding that “we can’t wait to reclaim the mandate of our clients’.
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.
Mrs. Idayat Adeboye , who is the Litigation Secretary of Adeoye Galadima & Associates, in a statement issued in Osogbo on behalf of the legal team which was made available to Team@orientactualmags.com on Friday night accused Osun state PDP and former Senator Ademola Adeleke of playing the sympathy card.
‘It really leaves one panting that such a legal issue, if at all there is one, could still be taken to the media by the PDP after having claimed to have joined issue with the petitioners by submitting her defence to the Tribunal. The mutual understanding around other issues incidental to the suit ought to have been taken to the Tribunal.
The press release is therefore taken as a decoy to curry scarce sympathy of the people and soil the reputation of the law firm and not forming part of the legal process meant to be received by the law firm. It is considered superfluous, most unfortunate and obviously suggestive of the Respondents’ pulse to the petition’ the statement said.
Mrs. Idayat also explained what transpired between staff of the law firm and the bailiff.
“It is on record that the law firm supplied for Address for Service was firmly on ground at the Tribunal for hours on August 23 2022 to the very knowledge of the legal team of the Respondents when the Replies purportedly arrived at the Tribunal.
Nevertheless, the Replies were not served on the petitioners throughout the day.
Having been intolerant of any forms of delays, the petitioners’ legal team throughout the 23rd, 24th and 25th days further expected service of the processes but to no avail. It was shortly after the law firm had closed on Thursday 25th that we got a phone call at about 6pm from someone who claimed to be at the office for service of a court process. The person was thereafter directed to come back on Friday 26th which was the following day. On 26th, the processes were expected for a considerable period of time but he never showed up before the office was closed for Jumat prayer.
A phone call later put to the law firm was replied with fact that having waited in vain for arrival of the processes at our law firm before closing for Jumat prayer ,the Bailiff should not bother to come again as the law firm promised to come and pick up the processes at the Tribunal.
All these positive steps were taken to ensure expeditious determination of the petition and against the background of the fact that the NBA conference was still ongoing in Lagos state’ she said.
‘It was a rude shock to the law firm when the PDP suddenly stormed an otherwise peaceful atmosphere with the baseless allegations of service evasion apparently designed to malign and traduce the petitioners’ modest adoption of a very informed, polite, well-mannered and civilized approach to recovery of mandate given to them on 16th July, 2022 by the good people of Osun state’ the statement added-Team@orientactualmags.com
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