By Lanre Adewole
DESPITE the brouhaha attending the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal, the entire show would end up in an anti-climax. On or before February 24, 2015, the petition of Senator Iyiola Omisore, challenging the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola would be dismissed. But it won’t be on the merit or otherwise, of the case he raised in the petition. It would be purely on technicalities strewn on the path of meritorious handling of election petitions in the country by the lawmakers while pushing for a timely resolve of electoral dispute.
Am I being needlessly supportive of the governor? Let’s check the facts. The Constitution in Section 285 (6) says a petition challenging the outcome of an election should be dispensed with, within 180 days, starting from the day of the filing of the said petition. Osun governorship election was conducted on August 9, 2014 and Omisore filed his petition on August 24, 2014. By February 24, 2015, Omisore’s petition would be statute-barred, caught by constitutional time limit. By November 24, three months would have gone by, leaving three months to try a petition, with over 2,000 witnesses between the petitioner; Omisore and the main respondent; Aregbesola, excluding those of the electoral body.
Beyond the euphoria of the imminent voiding of Aregbesola’s over 100,000 votes that would deliver Omisore the governorship seat, the realities of timing, conducts of parties, legal shenanigans and political considerations, point at a trial that would end without major consideration for the issues raised in the petition, including the very-detailed alleged manipulations in 17 local government areas of the state.
As this is penned, the main trial of the petition has not begun. The preliminary issues have not even been heard! The last two and a half months have been spent by parties having their counsel shamelessly throwing punches, party faithful in everyday needless free-for-all over very idiotic issues including who should first do electronic recording of inspected electoral materials, writing petitions against tribunal members and having the panel partially and completely-reconstituted; acts that simply added no value to the process while time was running out.
Unfortunately for the petitioner, the law counts the 180 days from the filing of the petition and not when Tribunal begins sitting which makes it incomprehensible that the side that should be worried about timing, jumps into every brawl that it is baited in. If Aregbesola and his party are playing games with the time-frame as being suspected, who can blame them? The governor would not be the first to take the advantage of this controversial constitutional provision. Infact, Omisore’s PDP has benefited more from it nationwide especially post-2011 elections, than any political party. As it stands now, front-loading or not, it is almost impossible for hearing in the petition to be concluded before February 24, 2015 even if the new panel sat everyday including weekend and Aregbesola and APC decided to set aside pre-conceived legal games to avoid needless but acceptable delay in proceedings.
I know people on both sides. We spoke. What we discussed would remain off-record. Even without any game-plan which is impossible because no worthy general goes to war without a battle-plan, there is no way over 2,000 witnesses could be taken by both sides in evidence-in-chief and cross-examination before the end of the year, excluding interlocutory appeals which the governor and his party cannot be denied of.
By engaging in real and shadow-boxing when the trial of the petition should have commenced, Omisore and his camp have taken the matter out of their hands and you would not ordinarily expect your enemies to help you win the war against them. Aregbesola is also not pretending that the 180-day weapon is not effective enough. Every technicality is being explored by his legal team. The latest one is that Omisore did not ask the Tribunal to commence hearing within seven days after parties had exchanged processes as required by the law. Aregbesola wanted the entire petition deemed abandoned because Omisore made the request a day after, by allegedly not counting the day the petitioner’s response to the respondent’s reply, was served on the governor. The Tribunal will tomorrow rule on whether to take argument on it first or later. Haba! Such triviality you may want to say but the law is the law.
Is it that Omisore’s case is so cast in iron that Aregbesola had to resort to technicalities to save his seat? Judicially, we may never get to know because once it is 180 days; all the governor and his party have to do is apply for a dismissal of the petition for being statute-barred. And pronto, all the hopes, aspirations, dreams and expectations of thousands of Osun people that have been sending SMS, salivating the coming of the man they believe won the election, would be out of the window in the cold.
We may end up not knowing who really lawfully won Osun governorship election but a damaging video-recording which has been seen by a couple of persons, may change the nation’s perception about the election which was hoisted as a triumph of doggedness and sagacity over federal might. And if by a miracle, the petition ran its full circle, there may be a likelihood of Abere government house not fully locked down for the next four years.
But is it that Aregbesola himself knew that the seat was not lawfully occupied by asking for a re-run in an event the Tribunal is not minded to dismiss Omisore’s petition as a mere rant? Those jubilating over Omisore’s imminent return as governor think so. I feel it was a mere taunt, having known the game-plan that would not make the petition run its full course.
