Ekiti Election Tribunal: Fayemi, APC Hire 35 Lawyers For Defence

The Governor-Elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Wednesday filed his defence to the petition by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and outgoing Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka.

In the 2,558-page defence with over 3,000 documents as exhibits, Dr. Fayemi averred that he won the gubernatorial election of July 14, 2018 and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition of Prof. Eleka 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, Mr Hakeem AfoIabi (SAN), Mr. Yomi Aliyu (SAN)  and Dr. Kayode Olatoke (SAN).

Addressing the press after filing the petition, Dr. Kayode Olatoke (SAN), who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said Eleka’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 governments areas of  the state, while Eleka won in four.

In his response to Eleka’s petition bordering on alleged over voting in some polling units, Olatoke dismissed this claim as frivolous and baseless.

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

“The second ground  of Eleka’s 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.

Other senior lawyers in the team representing Dr Fayemi and the APC are: Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Dr. Kayode Olatoke, (SAN ), Hakeem Afolabi (SAN), John Baiyeshea (SAN), Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN), Jelili Owonikoko (SAN), Yomi Aliyu (SAN) and Segun Ajibola (SAN).

No date has been fixed for hearing.