Kayode Fayemi, Governor-elect of Ekiti State, on Tuesday filed his defence to the election petition tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti, which is challenging his victory at the July 14 governorship election.
A petition was filed by Kolapo Eleka, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and outgoing Deputy Governor of Ekiti State.
Fayemi came to court with a 2,558-page document for his defence, and 3,000 other documents as exhibits, and asked the tribunal to dismiss Eleka’s petition for lacking in merit.
The trio of Hakeem Afolabi, Yomi Aliyu and Kayode Olatoke, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), led the team of 35 lawyers to defend Fayemi.
Among the senior lawyers on the team are Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), John Baiyeshea (SAN), Akin Olujimi (SAN), Jelili Owonikoko (SAN) and Segun Ajibola (SAN).
SaharaReporters gathered that they came to court with 3,500 exhibits and 1,009 witnesses for the case.
Kayode Olatoke, who addressed the press on behalf of his colleagues, said the petition filed by Eleka lacked substance.
Olatoke argued that the case would be dismissed by the tribunal, noting that it was clear that Fayemi won in 12 out of the 16 Local Government Areas in the state in the governorship election.
He described the main petition filed by Eleka, which bothered on allegations of over-voting in some polling units of the state, as baseless and frivolous.
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 petition is all on alleged over-voting, which is another false claim in any case; the petition 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. The fourth ground is on vote buying, which is baseless as it was Eleka’s sponsor, Governor Fayose that was guilty of this. Fayemi won convincingly based on his popularity.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the case.
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