The hearing of the petition emanating from the Osun State July 16 governorship poll did not commence again on Monday following the disagreement of parties on the mode of tendering documents before the panel.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Tertsea Kume, had adjourned the matter till Wednesday, October 26, for the commencement of hearing.
But the matter did not come up and Monday was later announced as the new date for the commencement of hearing.
At the day’s proceedings, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who appeared with Mr. Akinlolu Olujinmi, SAN, had informed the court of plan to tender a document.
But counsel for the 3rd respondent, the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Alex Izinyon, said Fagbemi’s mode of tendering the document was at variance with the paragraph three of the pre-hearing report, which mandated parties to file list of witnesses 24 hours to the hearing.
Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Paul Ananaba, and Counsel for Senator Ademola Adeleke, the PDP candidate at the poll, Mr. Onyeachi Ikpeazu, SAN, also aligned with Izinyon.
Arguing further, Ikpeazu said the petitioners should have made the document available to the respondents to enable them check before attempting to lay it before the court.
Responding, Fagbemi held that paragraph three of the pre-hearing report referred to by the respondents, specifically mentioned list of witnesses and page their names appear in the petition and not documents to be tendered.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Kume, then asked parties to deliberate and agree on how they wanted the documents to be tendered and both Fagbemi and Izinyon accepted that lawyers from both parties should check through the documents to be tendered before they would be brought before the court.
Justice Kume then adjourned the matter till Tuesday.
(Punch)