By Femi Makinde, Ado-Ekiti, Published: Thursday, 21 Jan 2010
Governor Segun Oni of Ekiti State on Wednesday asked the Justice Hamma Barka-led Election Petitions Tribunal to dismiss the case of Action Congress candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, against his victory in the April 25, 2009 rerun governorship poll.
Oni said this even as he admitted before the Tribunal that there were irregularities in the election result from the Unit 006 Ifaki Ward 2 in Ido-Osi Local Government Area of the state where he cast his vote during the rerun poll.
He appeared before the Tribunal amidst tight security Respondent Witness.
Oni, who was led in evidence by his counsel, Adebayo Adenipekun SAN, earlier told the five-man panel while being cross examined by counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Rowland Otaru, SAN, that the rerun poll being contested by the petitioner was free, fair and devoid of manipulation and violence.
But during cross examination led by the petitioner‘s counsel, Chief Anthony Adeniyi, the governor admitted that the votes credited to his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, was the only figure written with biro while every other thing written on the result appeared in carbon.
Oni, however, explained that PDP‘s score as contained in the form EC8A from Unit 006 Ifaki Ward 2 was written in ink so that it could be readable.
According to him, since the figures were entered on the original copy of the form EC8A with many duplicate copies attached to it, the figures were bound to appear faintly as the copies increase.
He said, “As carbon-copies multiply, the first would be clear, the second would be less clear. The pressure exact on original with pen will determine how the duplicate will be. As far as duplication is concerned, it will continue to be fainter and fainter.”
He stressed that there was no alteration on the result sheet but that it was written in ink so that his score would appear clearly. He said that nothing stopped other candidates from using biro to write clearly what they scored in their columns.
The governor disagreed with the counsel on why the presiding officer did not sign the result from his unit, insisting that the result was signed. He, however, explained that the signature was very faint in the column meant for the presiding officer‘s signature because the result before the tribunal was a duplicate copy.
The governor denied ever being a member of the AC but he admitted that he joined the Advanced Congress of Democrats for less than two months.
Questioned on why the stamp on form EC8A from his unit was different from the stamp used on form EC8B ( poll result for ward) the governor said that although the stamp used on the two documents were different but he stated that both stamps bore the name of INEC.
Oni said that he was surprised that Fayemi scored two votes in his ward. According to him, he was overwhelmingly voted for in Ifaki, his home town, because of ‘homeboy advantage.‘
He said that his victory at Ido-Osi local government area was not a surprise to him because the PDP had been winning every election in the council since 1999. He said that the PDP won in the area even when the Alliance for Democracy was the party in power.
Oni rejected the suggestion of the petitioner‘s counsel that the votes credited to him at the six disputed areas were concocted and manipulated to favour him.
Oni who was given the witness statement-on-oath he claimed to have deposed to on June 24 at the court alleged that the Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr. Saliu Adeoti, (an AC chieftain) led armed thugs to the INEC office in Ido-Osi and set the place ablaze.
He also restated this in Paragraph 88 of his reply to Fayemi‘s petition.
The paragraph read, ”After successfully collating the various results at the ward collation centres, results of the election were transmitted to the INEC office at Ido-Ekiti where the local government collation of result was to take place. As the collation was in progress at the local government INEC office, Hon. Saliu Adeoti, the Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and also a prominent member of the second respondent led some armed thugs to the INEC office in Ido-Ekiti and set the place ablaze.”
But he explained in paragraph 89 of his reply that policemen present at the INEC office in Ido-Ekiti were able to evacuate some of the materials, including election results from the place to a police station in the town where the results of Ido-Osi Local Government Area were collated in the presence of the Divisional Police Officer at the station.
Before the judges entered the court, supporters of the PDP and the AC had engaged in shouting competition right inside the court room. The two opposing teams tried to out do each other as they sang enthusiastically but there was no incident due to the heavy presence of security operatives in and out of the court.
