Osun State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola yesterday opened defence of the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, challenging his August 9 re-election before the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, four voters who told the tribunal that they are not politicians and testified before the tribunal said there were proper accreditation and that the voting proper was also hitch-free.

The witnesses were Mrs Racheal Babatunde, a trader; Folorunsho Olojede, a retired police officer; Adeniji Akinropo, a retired civil servant and Rauf Ajide Olaegbon, also a trader.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore is challenging the re-election of Aregbesola and the All Progressive Congress, APC, on the ground that there were no proper accreditation, that additional voting point were not created and that some voters were disenfranchised.

Giving evidence, Mrs Babatunde, told the tribunal that she was neither a member of APC nor any other political party, saying when she got to her polling unit in Ward 8 of Olorunda Local Government, she was properly accredited and eventually voted.

Also, Folorunsho told the tribunal that there was no any case of inducement of voters on the election day in his Ward 3, Unit 6 of Olorunda local government, saying nobody was disenfranchised on the said day.

In his own evidence, Akinropo told the court that accreditation was properly done and voting was conducted in a peaceful manner, saying nobody voted more than once on the said day.

Also, Olaegbon testified that he was accredited and voted, just as every other voter was allowed to vote on the said day.

He said he witnessed the accreditation, voting and announcement of the result on the said day.

Subsequently, Aregbesola’s counsel sought adjournment till today and it was granted.

Explaining the rationale behind request for adjournment, the APC counsel, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, said the request was strategic, saying the petitioners have not made any case before the tribunal.

Saying that the witnesses called so far were unshakeable under cross-examination, Akeredolu said: “We want to take our time to make sure that the witnesses we are calling are as good as the ones we have called. The witnesses have done extremely well.”

Omisore’s counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, also said they were happy with the progress made so far.

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