Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal has fixed October 13 for the hearing of all preliminary motions arising from the petition filed by All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Governor Gboyega Oyetola against Ademola Adeleke as the Governor-elect.
At the sitting of the Tribunal on Tuesday, Counsel for the petitioners, Lasun Sanusi (SAN), told the court that his response to the pre-hearing form had been filed and issues had been formulated for the Tribunal to determine.
He told the court that counsel for both petitioners and respondents had agreed on the time for examination, cross-examination and re-examination of witnesses, to ensure that the hearing is not unnecessarily prolonged.
He said: “We have both agreed that examination of witnesses should take five minutes, cross-examination 10 minutes and re-examination five minutes. For expert witnesses, examination for 15 minutes, cross-examination 20 minuteS and re-examination is five minutes”.
Counsels to INEC, Paul Ananaba (SAN), PDP, Alex Izinyon (SAN) and Adeleke, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN) agreed to the scheduling of the hearing as listed by the petitioners’ counsel.
Respondents’ counsels one after the other also told the court that they had filed responses to the pre-hearing form served on them by the tribunal.
On the number of witnesses to be called, the petitioners’ counsel said he has more than enough quality witnesses and would be willing to forgo the calling of some of them as the case proceeds, with a view to saving the time of the tribunal.
Subsequently, counsel for the respondents informed the tribunal of his intention to move some preliminary applications which have just been filed, but the petitioners’ counsel said he should be allowed to respond to any application filed.