Mr Adesina Teniola Akangbe, one of the witnesses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the August 9 election in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, turned a laughing stock before the election petition tribunal on Thursday, as he displayed lack of understanding of his witness statement. Members of the tribunal as well as lawyers for the petitioners and respondents could not hold their emotion when the witness said the meaning of ‘mutilation’ as stated in his witness statement statement was, “forcing someone to do something”, as counsel bursted into laughter. This happened at the afternoon session before the tribunal when Adesina was giving evidence before the panel. Under cross-examination, the INEC counsel asked the witness, “what do you mean by mutilation as stated in your deposition” and the witness responded, “forcing someone to do something”. Jokingly, the tribunal Chairman, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime while still laughing asked the lawyers to “add the statement of the witness to their dictionary”. When it was time for the witness to leave the witness box after giving evidence, the tribunal chairman jokingly said again, “witness thank you, you can mutilate it now”, a statement that again attracted another round of laughter. Earlier, the witness had told the tribunal that he wrote his witness statement by himself, understood it and signed it. He had also said he voted at unit 9 without accreditation, saying he was just asked to look for his name on the voters’ register pasted on the wall and allowed to vote. The witness who had early told the court that he signed the result form for his ward as a PDP supervisor for Ward 4 of Irewole Local Government, subsequently contradicted himself when he told the court that the result as tendered by the petitioners’ lawyers were not signed by him. He said all his evidence concerning other polling units apart from unit 8 where he voted were based on what he was told by the PDP agents in other units of his ward. Another witness, Felix Odewale, also from Irewole Local Government who had stated in his witness statement that the number of votes recorded in the result forms exceeded the total votes cast, told the tribunal that the statement was not true. Also, Salawu Muideen, the PDP supervisor for ward 6 of Irewole local government said he voted after accreditation and he received signed results from his party agents. PDP Witness Turned Laughing Stock At Osun Tribunal Sitting | OSUN DEFENDER osundefender.org
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 09:10:59 +0000
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