By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Ondo State Election Tribunal on Thursday resumed hearing into petitions filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Agboola Ajayi, challenging the victory of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa in the November 16th, 2024 governorship election in the state.
Apart from the PDP, the Action Alliance (AA) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) also opened their cases before the Tribunal, calling witnesses and tendering key documents to support their petitions.
Counsel to AA, Adebayo Adewole, on resumption of the hearing, called the only witness, Adekunle Rufai, who was cross-examined to prove the party’s petition before the Tribunal.
Rufai claimed that his party, AA, would have polled the highest vote but said only 58 votes were allocated to the party while votes were awarded to Aiyedatiwa, declaring the All Progressives Congress candidate as the winner.
He also told the panel that the governorship candidate, Omolere Akinuli, whose name appeared on the ballot paper, was not the authentic candidate of the party.
“My party scored 58 votes while INEC awarded Aiyedatiwa 366,781 votes. We would have been able to know the real results of the election in a free and fair election.”
He maintained that the party was not allowed to participate in the election, saying the real candidate of the party was not on the ballot.
The SDP also opened its case against Governor Aiyedatiwa, INEC, and APC, alleging that the election was marred by malpractices.
Counsel to the SDP, Adebayo Adewole, attempted to withdraw the first witness presented by the SDP but faced serious opposition from respondent lawyers.
Adewole said he decided to withdraw the witness because the witness claimed that she could not express herself in English fluently.
Reacting, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Benson Ogbu, who indicated that the SDP had 14 witnesses to call, however, adjourned the sitting till Friday for the continuation of the hearing.