Osun: Omisore petitions tribunal, wants Aregbesola sacked

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, Iyiola Omisore, on Thursday petitioned the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Osogbo to challenge the victory of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress.

Omisore’s petition, in three volumes, was filed at the registry of the tribunal as hundreds of PDP supporters trooped to the court to witness the signing of the documents.

The PDP candidate was accompanied to the tribunal by the Chairman of the party in Osun State, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa; the party’s head of legal team, Chief Sunday Ojo-Williams; and Director of Publicity of the party, Mr. Bola Ajao, among others.

Omisore later told journalists after filing the petition that the August 9 election was marred by electoral malpractices.

He said, “The tribunal will declare me the validly-elected governor of the state by the grace of God on November 27 because I scored the highest number of the lawful votes cast.

“The election was rigged in favour of Aregbesola; some members of the O-YES were used as INEC’s ad hoc staff, some security agents were compromised.”

The PDP candidate said that he had seven senior lawyers in his legal team and that he was confident that the tribunal would do justice to his petition.

According to him, many shocking revelations have been uncovered and the whole world will be told and shown how the election was manipulated in favour of the incumbent governor.

He urged his supporters to be calm and remained hopeful while expressing confidence that the APC government would be sacked by the tribunal.

He appealed to the Justice I. M Bako-led tribunal to maintain transparency and integrity in his handling of the case.

Ojo-Williams, who gave journalists an insight into what was contained in the petition said that Omisore was praying the tribunal to nullify Aregbesola’s victory and declare him the winner of the election.

He said that Omisore had already met the requirement of the law by scoring the mandatory 25 per cent of votes in all the 30 local government areas of the state, saying the candidate should be declared the winner of the election with the 292,747 votes recorded for him.

He said that the petitioner was in the alternative praying the tribunal to cancel the outcome of the election in 17 local government areas and order a rerun supplementary election in the disputed areas.

Ojo-Williams listed the disputed local government areas as parts of Atakunmosa East, Irewole, Iwo, Ede North, Ede South and Irelodun, among others.

The PDP state chairman also expressed the confidence that the court would sack Aregbesola just like it sacked former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola from office about four years ago.

He said, “The election was characterised by fraud and that is why we have come before the court. We are hopeful and confident that just like the court imposed Aregbesola on us, the court will also sack him from office before November 27.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission had on August 10 declared Aregbesola the winner of the election with 394,684 votes while Omisore came second with 292,747 votes.