*Urges Tribunal to dismiss it with substantial cost
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Senator representing Oyo South Senatorial District, Senator Sharafadeen Alli has urged the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss the petition filed against him by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chief Joseph Tegbe, and the PDP with substantial cost.
Senator Alli of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated this in his joint final written address and APC adopted on Thursday by his counsels before election petition Tribunal sitting in Ibadan.
In the joint address, Senator Alli stated that the petitioner had failed to establish that he did not score the majority of votes cast at the election, saying, Tegbe’s action amounted to mere academic exercise and that the petitioners also failed to proof over-voting in the polling units alleged and failed to demonstrate that the alleged over-voting inured him as well as the APC.
The Senator representing Oyo South stressed that the spurious over-voting could be for any of the candidates, either the petitioner, respondent and any other contestant in the election and that it was evident that the
petitioners could not establish the complaint in the petition and failed to prove the petition as it is.
” We cannot be dragged into dissipating energy to disprove a petition that has not been proved.
The petitioners witness clearly fell below the standard expected to sustain the reliefs sought in this petition having cross-examined the witnesses of the petitioners”, he said
Senator Alli added, “The respondent have extracted sufficient evidence which nailed the coffin of the petition of the petitioners which in law was dead on arrival,”
Emphasizing that there was no duty on them to call witnesses to disprove what has not been proven, Senator Alli said that the petitioner ought to have concentrated on the duty imposed on them by law by discharging the burden of proof which they have failed to do.
The Senator representing Oyo South emphasized that the petitioner had failed to satisfy the Honourable tribunal that the alleged over- voting, though not conceded, was traceable to the first and second respondents.
Stressing that the petitioners have not creditably made out case for any election in the senatorial district, Senator Alli urged the lordships to disregard their argument and dismiss the petition in the interest of justice, saying the petitioners have not established any fact to justify the reliefs sought.
“The appellant/petitioner failed to prove its case to be entitled to the reliefs sought by it. We therefore urge your lordships to disregard the argument of the Petitioners and dismiss the Petition with substantial cost,”
In the petition, the first and second respondents’ counsels are Mallam Yusuf Alli, SAN; Mr Kolawole Eleja, SAN; Mr Kazeem Gbadamosi, SAN; Mr Adeboye Sobanjo, Mr Lawal Saliu, Prof. Yahya Hambali, Mr Wahab Ismail and Dr. R.O. Abdulkadir.
