Osun: PDP, APC Adopt Final Addresses January 13

Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke; and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, on Thursday, closed their cases before the election petition tribunal hearing petition emanating from the state’s July 16 governorship election, as the panel adjourned till January 13, 2023, for the adoption of final written addresses by the parties.

Earlier, a forensic examiner, Samuel Oduntan, testifying for the second respondent, Adeleke, said over-voting occurred in six polling units during the election.

Oduntan, also a statistician, who said he carried out a forensic audit of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System under the supervision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, added that in the course of duty, he worked on the BVAS machines and compared its results with Form EC8A and B series.

While under cross-examination, counsel for the petitioner, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), asked if the forensic expert served as a presiding officer or operated BVAS on the day of the poll. Oduntan answered in the negative.

The court also overruled an attempt by counsel for the second respondent, Onyeachi Ikpeazu, who relied on Section 232 of the Evidence Act, to stop Olujinmi from using the BVAS report presented by INEC to cross-examine the witness.

Proceeding, Olujinmi then applied that the witness is given BVAS report tendered by INEC, and asked him to look at page 25, where the accreditation figure of Ward 4 unit 7, Ede South was written.

Responding, Oduntan gave the accreditation figure extracted from the BVAS machine for the unit to be 388, the same as the one in his witness statement, while the accreditation for the unit on RBVR was 313.

Olujinmi also asked him to check page 327 of his deposition, and Oduntan confirmed the accreditation extracted from BVAS to be 388, while 313 was the figure for accreditation on the BVAS report.

Also under cross-examination, Mr Bunmi Jenyo, a Personal Assistant to Adeleke, presented a diploma his principal obtained on July 16, 2021, from Penn Foster High School, United States and one obtained from Metropolitan College on August 9, 2021 -24 days apart.

Asked if he knew the requirements for entering higher institutions in the US, Jenyo noted that cumulative results of academic activities could be used.

Counsel for the second respondent, after his second witness has been discharged, closed his case, while counsel for the PDP, the third respondent, Dr Alex Izinyon, opened his case.

Izinyon told the panel that he would not be calling witnesses, but tendered eight documents from the bar.

Following the agreement of the counsel, the panel adjourned sitting till January 13, 2023, for the adoption of final written addresses by the parties.