PDP lines up 35 witnesses against APC

Posted by admin All Peoples' Congress (APC), Ekiti, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), State News Friday, August 15th, 2014

The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday lined up 35 witnesses to counter the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Governorship Election Tribunal against the election of Ayodele Fayose in the June 21 gubernatorial poll in the state.

The APC is challenging the declaration of Fayose as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying the PDP candidate did not poll the highest number of valid votes in the election.

In its preliminary objection filed by its lead counsel, Yusuf Ali (SAN), the PDP urged the tribunal to strike out the case on the basis of what it called non-joinder and mis-joinder of parties in the case.

The PDP said: “The APC is claiming that Fayose did not score the highest number of votes and that his election should be nullified and Governor Kayode Fayemi, who was not joined as a petitioner, should be declared winner. This is a case of non-joinder.

“Then, what is the reason behind the joining of the Chief of Defence Staff as a respondent in this case? Because the military did not partake in the electoral process and this is a clear case of mis-joinder.”

The PDP also wanted the petition struck out because some of the issues, particularly the contention over the Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate submitted by Fayose, which was being contested by APC in its petition, were alrady settled by the Appeal Court in the case of Alliance for Democracy versus Fayose in 2003.
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