Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, on Wednesday, filed his defence to the petition by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the state Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka.
In the 2,558-page defence with over 3,000 documents as exhibits, Fayemi declared that he won the gubernatorial poll of July 14 and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition of Eleka for lacking in merit.
A team of 30 lawyers armed with 3,500 exhibits and 1,009 witnesses was led to the tribunal by three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), Hakeem AfoIabi, Yomi Aliyu and Kayode Olatoke.
Addressing newsmen after filing the petition, Olatoke, 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 said 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 the claim as frivolous and baseless.
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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.
“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 Fayemi and the APC are Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), John Baiyeshea (SAN), Akin Olujimi (SAN), Jelili Owonikoko (SAN) and Segun Ajibola (SAN).
No date has been fixed for hearing.