Counsel for Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, Governor-elect Senator Ademola Adeleke and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have agreed on procedures to be adopted for hearing a petition challenging Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) victory during the July 16, 2022 governorship election.
As the sitting resume yesterday, lead counsel for the petitioners, Lasun Sanusi, SAN, told the tribunal that they and respondents’ counsel had agreed on the procedure to be adopted for hearing the petition.
He said: “The panel should start sitting by 10am on Mondays to Fridays, while sitting will end by 4pm every day, except Friday when sitting should end by 1pm.”
It was also noted that “examination of witnesses will take five minutes with 10 minutes allocated for cross-examination, while re-examination will take five minutes. Fifteen minutes duration was agreed on for expert witnesses, cross examination of the same witness will take 20 minutes and re-examination of the witness will take five minutes.”
Sanusi also said they had agreed that evidence should be tendered by consent and in case of objection; the ruling would be reserved till the judgment stage.
The counsel for INEC, Adeleke and PDP, Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN and Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, agreed to the procedure for the trial announced by the petitioner’s counsel.
The counsel told the court that they have filed responses to pre-hearing forms served on them by the tribunal.
Izinyon, addressing the panel, said he had two motions before the tribunal, pleading that he had plans to make oral application to draw attention of the panel to the decision of a court in Abuja that had invalidated the reason the tribunal was set up.
However, the panel Chairman, Justice Tertsea Kume, directed him to file formal application.
He adjourned sitting till October 13 for the hearing of pre-trial applications.