Aregbesola asks tribunal chairman to step down

The Election Petitions Tribunal hearing the petitions arising from the Osun State governorship election on Thursday granted the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, the permission to paste the notice of the tribunal on the walls of Government House, Osogbo and the Governor’s Office.

However, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, has challenged the authority of the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Suleiman Ambrusa, to grant such permission and has asked him to step down.

Earlier, Ambrusa had said having considered the application of the petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Afolabi Fashanu, the respondent should be served a copy of the petition by pasting same on the walls of the Government House and Governor’s Office at the state secretariat.

The petitioner had prayed the tribunal for an order of substituted service following an allegation that security agents did not allow the bailiff to serve the governor.

The chairman of the tribunal said that evading service would not be an excuse for not serving the respondent because the case should not be one-sided.

But Aregbesola’s counsel, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, asked the tribunal chairman to disqualify himself because of a petition written against him and addressed to the National Judicial Council.

Adegoke said, “There are certain fundamental issues that must be addressed in the petition against you at the NJC. If a party is expressing lack of confidence in a judge, the requirement is that such judge should step aside from handling the case.”

But Ambrusa said he could not be stampeded into stepping aside from sitting on the panel because it was only the NJC that could ask him to step down.

He said, “I am ready to step down. I didn’t put myself here. I have not seen the copy of the petition against me. There should be decorum. I would be served a copy of your petition since you have written to the NJC. It is only the NJC that can act on your application.”

It will be recalled that Omisore had filed a petition challenging the result of about 17 local government areas at the tribunal.

Omisore, while asking the tribunal to nullify Aregbesola’s victory, prayed that he should be declared the winner of the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Aregbesola winner of the poll with 394, 684 votes while Omisore who polled 292,747 votes came second.