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Full hearing activities in the case filed by the Osun State governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola against the victory of Senator Ademola Adeleke in the last gubernatorial election in the state, have resumed at the election petition tribunal as the petitioner on Monday, called the first witness in the case to counter the declaration of Adeleke as the Governor-elect in the state.
At the resumed hearing of the case, the petitioner’s counsel, Akin Olujimi SAN said that “today sitting is for witness” and he prayed the court to call on the first witness.
He said that he will rely on forms EC8As, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and BVAS report released by INEC to arrive at his findings.
The first witness, SSA to the governor on Research and statistic, Isiaka Olarenwaju said that he resides in Ila-Orangun Local Government Area in Osun state, having confirmed the witness statement shown to him by the petitioner’s counsel said that he stood by the statement.
During the cross-examination, while responding to a question from the first respondent, Paul Ananaba, the witness said he analysed the results of the election in 749 units across 10 Local Governments as against 762 units being suggested to him by the counsel for the respondents.
Ananaba also asked the witness if the report from the election is different from what the witness signed in his statement and he replied that “There is an error, I worked on just 749 units”.
He has confirmed that he did not operate the BVAS machine and he didn’t know who transmitted the results on the BVAS machine. As asked by the second respondent counsel, Onyeachi Ikpeazu.
Also, the third respondent petitioner, Alex Izinyon asked if the witness is an expert and if he has a letter of instruction for what he did and he replied “yes” I’m an expert and I also have a letter of instruction.
The petitioner’s counsel prayed the court to drop the second and third witnesses in respect of the case.
Olujinmi said the petitioner will no longer call the two witnesses in support of its petition and seek the leave of the court to have them withdrawn.
“My Lords, we want to drop the two witnesses we had lined up for appearance,” Olujinmi applied to the panel.
He, however, prayed for an adjournment till tomorrow to further calling of other witnesses.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Tertsea Kume thereafter adjourned the case till Tuesday, November 22, 2022, for the continuation of the hearing.
Speaking to journalists after the sitting, Akin Olujinmi said that “What happened today is that the petitioners called their witness who gave oral evidence on the analysis he did on the results produced by INEC after the election. And the other witnesses who will testify will be coming in tomorrow and the court has adjourned till tomorrow.
Replying on the two witnesses he dropped, he said “Yes I did, having to look at their evidence I found that there was no point calling so many witnesses if you can speak through one witness who is conversant with the case. I looked at the summary of their evidence I found that there is nothing in the statement the first witness has not said clearly.”
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