A witness, has told the Lagos State Governorship Election
Petition Tribunal headed by Justice Arum Ashom, that Governor Babajide
Sanwo-Olu and his wife, Ibijoke were allowed to cast their votes, despite their
voter cards being invalid.
This testimony was given, on Monday, by an agent of the
Labour Party, Dayo Isreal, who was subpoenaed to testify in the petition filed
by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s candidate, in the March 18 election, seeking to nullify the return of
Gov. SanwoOlu and his deputy.
While being led in evidence by the Rhodes-Vivour’s lead
counsel, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olumide Ayeni, the witness told the court that
he served as an agent for the Labour Party for Unit 006, Ward 15, Lagos Island
Local Government in the Governorship Election.
”I observed that the card reader showed their cards to be
invalid but Sanwo-Olu and his wife were allowed to cast their votes and this is
against INEC’s electoral process,” Israel said before the tribunal.
Under cross-examination from counsel to INEC, Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, Charles Edosomwan, the witness also claimed he was beaten
up that day by some All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters and that he knew
they were APC supporters from the way they spoke.
“I am not a member of the Labour Party but I was assigned as
an agent. When the APC thugs recognised me as an LP agent, they beat me up.
They also said if voters did not vote for APC, they would beat them too,” he
said.
When asked by counsel to Governor Sanwo Olu Olu and his
deputy, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Muiz Banire, to describe how he was beaten.
He added, “During casting of votes, 4 of them beat me up. I
ran away, changed my clothes to disguise myself and came back to monitor the
counting of votes.”
He also noted that there were cases of multiple casting of
votes but INEC officials failed to intervene.
“I observed more than 3-4 people voting more than once at
the polling unit. INEC staff conducted the elections, though they looked the
other way when this was going on.”
While answering questions from counsel to APC, Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, Abiodun Owonikoko, the witness disclosed that a total
number of 126 people were accredited at the polling unit where Governor Sanwo
-Olu voted while APC had 121 votes, LP was given 2votes.
Another subpoenaed witness, the secretary of the Labour
Party in Lagos State, Sam Okpala, also testified before the tribunal.
Led by counsel to the petitioner, Folagbade Benson, the
subpoena was tendered to the tribunal through the witness, a situation which
led to another round of objections from the respondents.
The tribunal in its ruling noted the objections of the
respondents but proceeded to hear the testimony of the witness while ordering
the respondents to include their objections in their final written addresses.
The witness, while being cross-examined by INEC’s counsel,
said he would not have appeared before the tribunal if he was not subpoenaed,
adding that he never wrote a statement.
Meanwhile, the tribunal has adjourned till July 3 for the
continuation of the hearing in the petition.
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