Governor Rauf Aregbesola continued calling witnesses to defend his victory before the Election Petitions Tribunal hearing matters arising from the August 9 governorship election in Osogbo on Thursday, just as one the witnesses confirmed that the number of votes recorded on the result sheet was higher than the number of ballot papers used for the poll. The revelation came during the cross-examination of one of Aregbesola’s witnesses, Fidelis Adaramegbe, by the petitioner’s counsel, Nathaniel Oke ( SAN). Adaramegbe was led in evidence by counsel for the first respondent, Chief Akin Olujinmi ( SAN). The witness had told the court that the election was free, fair and credible. He said the same thing when the counsel for the All Progressives Congress, Femi Falana (SAN), also cross-examined him. The witness said in his statement on oath that votes were sorted, counted, entered into the result sheet which was signed and stamped. However, when confronted with the form EC8A from Unit 6 Ward 4 from Oriade Local Government Area by the petitioner’s counsel, the witness told the court that there was no INEC stamp on it. Adaramegbe confirmed that 859 was recorded in the form EC8A as number of votes cast in his unit while only 478 voters were accredited to vote at the unit. He added that 470 ballot papers were used in the unit while 445 votes were entered as the number of valid votes. The first witness of the day, Ibrahim Mukaila from Boripe Local Government Area told the court during cross-examination by Falana that he was a trader. He told the court that the election was credible and peaceful. The witness also said that security agents were effective during the poll. Yinusa Tajudeen, who was called to testify in respect of Unit 1 Ward 2 in Atakumosa East said there was proper accreditation. He said he was born on January 1, 1970 and gave his age as 43 years. But when the petitioner’s counsel said his actual age was over 44, the witness said he could not calculate it. He said that he went to the collation centre where poll results were counted in his presence.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 06:54:17 +0000
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