Oyo Tribunal: Ladoja accuses INEC of sabotage

Governorship candidate of the Accord Party during the April 11 election in Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on Monday, accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of sabotaging his efforts to file necessary papers before the Election Petitions Tribunal to prove that the winner and All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, rigged his re-election.
Ladoja’s lawyer, Mr Richard Ogunwole (SAN), who spoke before the tribunal, headed by Justice J.G. Abundaga, at the state High Court, Iyaganku, Ibadan, accused INEC of deliberate sabotage capable of wasting the time of the tribunal.
Other members of the tribunal are Justices G.C Nnamani and A.H Suleiman.
Ogunwole alleged that INEC officials refused to make documents available to his team to plead its case before the Tribunal.
“Time is of essence in this task. On Thursday, a team of lawyers were at the INEC office to get some documents. But unfortunately, the INEC staff only worked a few hours and shut down the premises. I was aware there was a public holiday on Friday, but I don’t think INEC staff should go on any holiday now, and they should also work on Saturday. All we were asking from them was to make photocopies of certain documents.
“Need we inform INEC that these are public documents that need no prior authorisation from Abuja before they are made available?. Nobody can know who won the election. My Lords, INEC needs to be told that time has started running and we have just 180 days. None of the counsel should be allowed to waste time too,” Ogunwole said.
Earlier, Justice Abundaga had warned counsel to petitioners against any waste of time as the tribunal would not exceed its statutory 180 days to dispense with all matters brought before it.