Ekiti poll: Fayemi, APC hire 35 SANs, lawyers for defence against Eleka, PDP’s petition

The Governor-elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Wednesday filed his defence to the petition by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and outgoing Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Prof. Kolapo Olusola.

The defence team, comprised of 35 lawyers, would be led by eight Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

The SANs are Prince Lateef Fagbemi, Chief Akin Olujimi, Jelili Owonikoko, John  Baiyeshea, Segun Ajibola, Mr Hakeem AfoIabi, Mr. Yomi Aliyu and Dr. Kayode Olatoke.

In the 2,558-page defence with over 3,000 documents as exhibits, Fayemi averred that he won the gubernatorial election of July 14, 2018 and urged the tribunal to dismiss Olusola’s petition for lacking in merit.

The team of lawyers armed with 3,500 exhibits and 1,009 witnesses were led to the tribunal by three Senior Advocates of Nigeria:

Addressing the press after filing the petition, Olatoke who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said Olusola’s petition was a waste of time as it lacked substance and was sure that the case would be dismissed by the tribunal.

He explained further that Fayemi won fair and square in 12 out of the 16 local government areas of the state, while Olusola won in four.

Olatoke dismissed Olusola’s claim of over voting in some polling units as frivolous and baseless.

He said Eleka’s first ground in his petition was based on Fayose’s phantom indictment, which had been nullified and set aside by a competent court.

“The second ground of Eleka’s (Olusola) petition is alleged over voting, which is another false claim. In any case, the petition in itself is self-defeating.

“The third ground is on deliberate voiding of votes as alleged by Eleka but in actual fact, majority of the voided ballots were votes meant for Fayemi, while the fourth ground is on vote-buying which is baseless as it was, Eleka’s sponsor, Fayose that was guilty of this.

“Fayemi won convincingly based on his popularity,” Olatoke said.

No date has been fixed for hearing.

Recall that the governorship election in the state was held on July 14 2018 and INEC had since declare Fayemi the winner.