On Tuesday, the legal teams of the petitioners and respondents in the Election Petition Tribunal hearing issues arising from the July 16 Osun governorship election agreed on the procedure to be used in the hearing of the petition.
Mr Lasun Sanusi (SAN), who appeared with Dr Abiodun Layoonu (SAN), Prof Kayode Olatoke (SAN), and Mr Yomi Aliu, informed the panel of the agreement already reached by both parties regarding the procedure that the sitting would follow.
Sanusi also stated that witness examination would take five minutes, with cross-examination taking ten minutes and re-examination taking five minutes.
He stated that expert witnesses would be given 15 minutes, cross-examination of the same witness would take 20 minutes, and re-examination of the witness would take five minutes.
The petitioners’ lawyer stated that the counsels had agreed that evidence should be tendered by consent, and that if an objection was raised, the ruling would be reserved until the judgement stage.
Responding, Prof Paul Ananaba (SAN), counsel for the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), counsel for Senator Ademola Adeleke, the second respondent in the matter, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), and counsel for the Peoples Democratic Party, the third respondent, all agreed to the trial procedure announced by the petitioner’s counsel.
They claimed to have filed responses to the tribunal’s pre-hearing forms.
While addressing the panel separately, Izinyon and Ogunwumiju stated that the petitioner’s counsel had not adopted his pre-trial form before the tribunal and that the document should be deemed abandoned.
However, in his response, Sanusi dismissed the claim that he had not adopted his form and urged the panel to disregard it.
Izinyon stated that he had two motions before the tribunal and that he intended to make an oral application, drawing the panel’s attention to an Abuja court decision that had invalidated the reason for the tribunal’s establishment.
However, the panel chairman, Justice Tertsea Kume, told him to file a formal application and, with the agreement of counsel, adjourned sitting until October 13 for the hearing of all pre-trial applications.
