The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has granted an ex parte order to Senator Ademola Adeleke, restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from altering election results.

The tribunal also stop the electoral body from altering information contained in the card reader machines and other documents used for the poll.

The tribunal, headed by Justice T.A. Igoche, which also has Justice P. A. Obayi as member, granted this order in Osogbo on Thursday during its sitting before the commencement of pre-hearing session.

Adeleke, who was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, through his counsel, Nathaniel Oke (SAN), filed an ex parte application seeking leave of the tribunal to file the application before the pre-hearing session.

The applicant also sought leave of the tribunal to inspect and obtain certified true copies of electoral documents and materials in the custody of INEC, in order to conduct physical inspection and verification of electoral materials and machines, as well as used and unused ballots, among others.

Adeleke also applied for an order to compel the INEC to produce and print out list of permanent voter card distribution statistics per polling units and an order restraining INEC from altering extracted information from card readers, election results from polling unit level to state level, as well as ballot papers used for the conduct of the governorship election in Osun State.

Adeleke predicated his application on the grounds that he was the candidate that contested the election held on September 22, 2018 and the re-run election held on September 27, 2018 on the platform of PDP.

The panel, after listening to the application moved by Adeleke’s counsel, held in their ruling that the application had merit and granted it as prayed.

Addressing the fear raised by the applicant that INEC might not respect the tribunal’s order except they were armed with a certified true copy of the order, Igoche said there was nothing stopping the panel from issuing the order to the applicant on the same day.

There was heavy presence of armed policemen and operatives of the Department of State Service on the court premises and outside the court as security operatives were deployed to prevent destruction of the proceedings at the tribunal.

Those going into the court premises were frisked by policemen from the police anti-bomb unit while vehicles were also thoroughly searched to prevent hoodlums from smuggling weapons into the place.

Source - Concise News