By Our Reporter
The Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal may have established a pattern with the the lone witness summoned by the 2nd Respondent, All Progressive Congress (APC) unwittingly indicting the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the party for altering election results sheets.
The lone witness, Rasak Adeosun, who functioned as the state collation agent and the star witness of the APC accepted under cross-examination that the cancellation of the seven polling units was not in consultation with various party agents. This validated the petitioner, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party’s position that the cancellation was illegally done to deny its candidate victory at the poll in the September 22, 2018 governorship election.
Before the start of cross examination of the star witness, APC tendered some documents which included form EC8As and EC8Bs result sheets of some local government areas.
The documents were admitted as exhibits by the honorable tribunal. The state collation agent while being cross examined by PDP lead counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) admitted to discrepancies between the pink copies of form EC8A and certified true copies of the same results.
The star witness attempted to justify the alteration as a consequence of mistakes discovered at the collation center but his defence could not stand the scrutiny of cross examination by the PDP counsel.
When the PDP counsel asked Rasak if the presiding officers and party agents were at the point of correction as he claimed, the witness said, “No”
When also asked if he knew the person who made the corrections, Mr Rasak did not hesitate to say, “No”, as well.
Mr Rasak was also asked if the party agents in the seven units where re-run took place were present at the collation centre when it was decided that supplementary election will take place in those units, again he said, “No.”
With this, Dr. Ikpeazu said he was satisfied with the response and the witness was discharged.
While the tribunal was expecting the next witness to come in, APC decided to end witness presentation for the day. Their counsels sought for adjournment till Tuesday (tomorrow) for the continuation of their defense which was granted.
The petitioner, Senator Ademola Adeleke who was present for the hearings told journalists that he was satisfied with the proceedings, noting that, “Almighty God is in charge of restoring justice and the stolen mandate of Osun people. I have been attending the sessions. The judiciary is the last hope of the poor, the cheated and the unjustly treated. I am seeking justice for the people of Osun state and I know justice will be served,” Adeleke stated.
