Ondo Election Tribunal Ends Pre-Trial Session, Adjourns To January 12 |The Source

By Ayodele Oni

The Ondo state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has concluded the pre-trial hearing of petitions before it, and fixed January 12, 2020 to begin proper hearing.

During the pre-trial session, two petitions filed against the victory of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu by the Action Alliance (AA) and All People’s Party,(APP) were thrown out for non- compliance with Electoral Act.

The Tribunal will now proceed with the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its candidate, Eyitayo Jegede,SAN.

The PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede had dragged Governor Akeredolu to the tribunal to challenge his victory in the October 10 Governorship Election.

Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Umar Abubakar, fixed the date while reading the report of the pre-trial hearing on Thursday at the Ondo state High Court, venue of the sitting.

According to him, sitting will hold on Mondays to Saturdays 9:30am to 5pm. Exceptions are on public holidays, and Sundays.

Counsels appearing before the tribunal agreed with the contents of the Pre-Trial report but pleaded that the number of representation  pegged at five to reduce crowd in the Court, be increased to 10.

This is to forestall rowdy session during the first sitting which led to sporadic gun shots within the tribunal premises during which some people sustained injuries.

Since after the experience, security situation around the tribunal sitting has been improved with men of the Nigeria  Police , DSS, and the NSCDC mounting surveillance.