By Adenitan Akinola
The Osun State National Assembly and State House Assembly Electoral Petition Tribunal have dismissed five of the petitions filed against the February 25th Senate and House of Representatives Elections in Osun State.
The five cases include that of the Action Alliance again Senator-elect Duro Fabiyi of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun Central and AA against House of Representatives member-elect, Mr Bamidele Salam of the PDP in Ede North, South, Egbedore and Ejigbo Federal Constituency among others.
The dismissal was consequent upon the failure of the petitioners to attend the pre-hearing session of the cases as mandated by the Law.
Moving an oral application, counsel to the PDP, Mr Oyewole Jimi-Bada submitted that based on the provisions of Schedule one paragraph 18 sub-paragraph 1 (A), failure of the petitioners to be available for the pre-hearing trial would automatically amount to the dismissal of the petition.
Counsel to the first respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr Bukola Durojaye argued that neither the Petitioners, their representatives nor their counsels were in Court, which indicated that they had abandoned the case.
Similarly, one of the counsels to the PDP, Mr Kolapo Alimi applied for an order of the Tribunal to compel the Petitioners to pay a cost of one million naira to the respondents.
In a short serial ruling on all the cases, Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice V. O Eboreime declared that based on the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as amended the petitions stood dismissed.
Justice Eboreime however refused the application for the award of cost and directed parties to bear their cost.
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