Gov Aregbesola Replied Petition Filed Against Position

Governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has formally filed his reply to the petition of Otunba Iyiola Omisore and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, challenging the declaration of Aregbesola by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the winner of August 9, governorship election in the state .

In the reply dated  September 22, 2014 , Governor Aregbesola raised a preliminary objection to the competence of the petition on six grounds that: The petitioner has no locus standi to present this petition not having shown in the petition that he was validly a candidate at the election subject of this petition.

The allegations contained in several paragraphs of the petition are vague, general, generic, not specific, speculative, omnibus, imprecise and nebulous; Several paragraphs of the petition raise a pre-election issue which the tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain; The petition has not been properly constituted in that criminal allegations have been made against persons who have not been joined to this petition; The Petitioners did not meet all the conditions precedent to the presentation of the petition and  that the grounds on which the petition is based are unknown to law.

Apart from the preliminary issues raised against the competence of the petition,  Aregbesola averred that the petitioner did not score up to 25 per cent of the lawful votes cast in each of the 30 Local Government Areas of Osun and did not satisfy the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

He also averred that in polling units and wards being challenged by the petitioners, entries were properly made in Forms EC8A and there were no malpractices and acts of irregularities as alleged and the result of the election was not tilted against the petitioner and in favour of the First Aregbesola and Second APC Respondents as alleged.