The Legislative House Elections Petition Tribunal in Ilorin, Kwara State, will today deliver judgment in a petition against Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 28 senatorial election, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, challenged the declaration of Dr. Saraki as the winner of the Kwara Central poll.
The three-man tribunal is led by Justice Josiah Majebi.
It was learnt that the tribunal would deliver four judgments.
Other matters are Lola Ashiru v Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara South Senatorial District); Babatunde Olusola v Olufunke Adedoyin and Tajudeen Abioye v Tope Olayonu; which are House of Representatives cases.
The Nation gathered that the tribunal had communicated the judgment date to them as promised by the chairman on September 4, when final written addresses were adopted.
Adopting his final written address, counsel to Saraki, Mallam Yusuf Ola-Olu Ali (SAN), asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition, saying the petitioner failed to prove his case.
Ali said a forensic report tendered in evidence was dated March 28, 2014, a year before the election was conducted.
“The date shows the document was prepared in anticipation of the election,” the lawyer said.
He said the four-volume forensic analysis report suffered “incurable and fundamental afflictions.”
Mallam Ali said the report was prepared by a Lagos forensic analyst, Mrs. Nkolly Asika Obumse, wife of Abdulrasaq’s lawyer, Francis Obumse.
Obumse, who led the petitioner’s counsel, adopted his final written address.
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), second and third respondents, Abdulwahab Bamidele and Alarape Salman (SAN), agreed with Ali’s submission, praying the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
The Nation
