The former Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola on Thursday rejected Governor, Ademola Adeleke’s academic certificates presented to the Tribunal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), over claims that the documents are blurry.
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Following the decision of INEC to present blurry documents in court on Thursday, the Election Petition Tribunal hearing case was adjourned.
The Deputy Director of INEC, Joan Arabs presented an eight-page document which includes Certified True Copies of the testimonial obtained by Adeleke from Ede Muslim Grammar School, and the West Africa Examination Council General Certificate of Education.
The panel at the tribunal last week Friday directed the INEC chairman to bring Adeleke’s documents for the 2018 poll in its next sitting.
The counsel to the petitioners, Lateef Fagbemi who appeared with Akin Olujinmi after checking the documents told the panel that two out of the pages were not clear enough.
According to Fagbemi, the section for scores obtained by the candidate on the GCE result was blank, adding that the address of the school that awarded the testimonial was not also clear enough.
The counsel to INEC, Paul Ananaba noted that the copies are clear and readable.
He called on the plaintiffs to allow the documents to be admitted since they had earlier claimed that they had CTC copies of the documents which could be presented.
Ananaba assured not to object to the documents if presented by the plaintiffs.
Counsel to Adeleke and Peoples Democratic Party, Onyeachi Ikpeazu and Alex Izinyon respectively said the documents were clear enough but admitted some sections were blurry.
They, however, said the documents were still rectifiable and urged the petitioners to call their next witness, while INEC should be made to present clearer copies if they have.
Ananaba later called for a stand down of the matter to enable him to obtain screenshots of the documents from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
After the panel had reconvened, Ananaba presented both colour and back and white copies made from the screenshots obtained from INEC head office, which he also admitted were not better than the copies earlier presented.
He sought an adjournment to enable INEC to bring before the panel, the file from which the copies earlier presented were made from.
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Fagbemi, however, insisted that the order of the court was that clear documents should be presented, saying the respondents must comply with the directive.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertse Kume, while reading the ruling of the panel adjourned the matter till Saturday for the INEC to bring the original file containing the documents.
