Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

FOR the second day running, startling revelations on the conduct of the controversial April 14 gubernatorial elections in Ondo State were made at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure to resolve the legal issues thrown up by the exercise.

The tribunal, which was earlier shown evidences of fictitious registration and voting through the use of photographs of prominent personalities on the voters’ registers in 10 of the 18 local councils where the petitioner, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party (LP) is contesting the election outcome, was yesterday afternoon told how chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), signed result sheets on behalf of electoral officers.

The tribunal was also told how 50,475 ballot papers certified as not used during the polls in the three southern local councils of Ese-Odo, Irele and Ilaje could not be found in the custody of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), eight months after the conduct of the exercise.

A witness paraded by the LP yesterday, Mr. Ogundeji Iroju, who said he was commissioned by the petitioner to add the declared figures in order to determine the extent of fraud in the collation of results, said in Ilaje local council alone, 40,813 ballot papers are still unaccounted for.

Stressing that he was assisted by a team of experts in conjunction with INEC officials and representatives of the PDP in attendance, Iroju said there were a lot of discrepancies in the figures announced by the electoral body.

Led in evidence by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Iroju, one of the eight witnesses listed by the petitioner to prove his case, disclosed that INEC records show that of the 114,500 ballot papers issued to Ilaje local council, only 57,233 were said to have been used while only 16,454 were returned to INEC stores, leaving a shortfall of 40,813.

He added that the figure of unaccounted ballot papers will be much higher if the whole of the disputed councils were considered as Ese-Odo and Irele have 6,893 and 2,769 unaccounted ballot papers respectively.

He said under oath that contrary to Section 46 (1) of the electoral Act, several members of the PDP, who at the time of the polls were government officials at both the state and council levels, served as agents of the party and signed INEC result sheets, a situation the LP legal team described as a clear breach of the electoral law.

The witness also provided evidence in form of specimen signatures in his sworn deposition, that serving policemen signed as agents of the PDP at some collation centres on election day, an act the petitioner said had shown the partiality of the policemen on polls day.

Some of the names listed by the witness as serving state officials who signed for the PDP include Ayo Ifayefunmi, the then Commissioner for Agriculture; Yemi Alao, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice; Tola Akintemi, PDP Chairman (Ondo South); Francis Igbasan, Chairman of the State Scholarship Board; Benson Enikuomehin, Special Assistant to Agagu; Niyi Alonge, Chairman of Ose Local Government; and Agboola Ajayi, former chairman of Ese-Odo council who now represents the area at the Lower House.

The witness also showed evidence, which were marked and taken as exhibits by the tribunal, of a serving police officer who signed on behalf of the PDP and the party’s agent in Mahin Ward 4 of Ilaje local council. Besides, he said, one allegedly signed several result sheets in Irele council during an election in which he was contesting as a member of the State House of Assembly.

Other names listed by Iroju include Tayo Sipasi, Special Adviser to Chairman of Ese Odo council; Prince Oluwole Ogunlade Toyin, Special Assistant to the Finance Commissioner who allegedly signed results of four wards in Akure North, namely Ayede/Ogbese, Ayetoro, Eleyowo/Iluabo, and Moferere; as well as R.A Akintemi, Supervisor for Health in the Odigbo council, who also signed results in three wards namely: Ago Alaye, Araromi Obu, and Ayesan.

Source: Guardian