Osun tribunal: PDP witnesses contradict selves

Source: The Nation Newspaper Published:Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Oyinlola

It was contradictions galore yesterday as Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s witnesses continued giving evidence on the April 14, 2007 poll at the Election Petition Retrial Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, the state capital.

Three witnesses gave contradictory evidences during the proceedings.

Though Chief R. A. Lawal-Rabana, the lead counsel to Oyinlola, made efforts to stop one of the witnesses, Chief Deinde Alalade, from identifying his name from the voters’ register, the five-man retrial tribunal ruled Lawal-Rabana’s objection.

Tribunal chairman, Justice Alli Garba, said Alalade was only told to go through the voters’ register of the polling unit where he claimed to have voted and identified his name.

Before the tribunal overruled Lawal-Rabana’s objection supported by the counsels to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Dayo Famakin-Johnson, and that of the Police, Mr A. O. Adeniji, he had argued that Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, who cross-examined Alalade, could not ask the witness to point out his name from the voters’ register because it was a violation of the tribunal’s last Friday ruling.

Akeredolu argued that last Friday’s decision of the tribunal on Lawal-Rabana referred to was not "applicable in this instance. It is for the witness to identify his name on the voters’ register, whether his name is there or not."

The witness was, however, given the voters’ register for the Ago Fulani polling unit, Iresi, in Boluwaduro Local Government, to show his name as a registered voter.

He contradicted himself while answering questions about his record of service in the old Oyo State where he claimed to have retired, under cross-examination by Akeredolu.

The witness, who is the chairman, Osun Central Senartorial District of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was then asked, after the tribunal’s ruling, to show his name. He replied that he could not find it, but found the name of one Ademola J. Alalade.

Alalade also said he retired voluntarily from active politics as a Bursar on Grade 2 on June 1, 1983, at the age of 39.

Asked how old he was when he started work, the witness said his "official age" at the time was 20, since he retired in 1983 at the age of 44.

The cross-examination went thus:

Q: Have a look at that Exhibit (the voters’ register for Ago Fulani

polling unit). Is Dehinde Alalade there in that exhibit?

A: Dehinde Alalade is not there, but I can see Ademola J. Alalade. I

am James Dehinde Ademola Alalade.

Q: You said you have retired

?

A: Yes, I have retired.

Q: When did you retire?

A: I retired on 1st June, 1983, at Ataoja High School as a Bursar

Grade Two.

Q: You retired at what age?

A: Voluntarily for politics.

Q: What was your age when you retired?

A: I was 44 from 1983. I was 39. I applied for ‘condonation of

Service’ from the Local Government Service to the state Ministry of Education. I served for 18 and half years.

Q: So, you started work at the age of 20, or is that your official age?

A: I started teaching service after I left Modern School. After that, I applied for ‘condonation of service’ from old Oyo State and it was granted. That was why I was able to receive my gratuity. They started paying my pension after five years.

Q: It is a very simple thing. You retired in 1983 in the service of

Osun State?

A: I retired in 1983 in old Oyo State.

Q: If you retired in 1983, in old Oyo State, what is the need for condonation?

A: The Local Government Service Commission is different from the Civil Service Commission. Since I worked at the Local Government, Iragbiji, Ifelodun Local Government, Iragbiji, I then applied tomerge the Local Government Service with the Ministry of Educaon. By the grace of God, the then government approved it.

Q: At what age did you leave Modern School?

A: I entered the Modern School in 1954 and I left in 1957.

Q: That means you entered Modern School at the age of 10?

A: Sirs, God owns everything. The Awolowo era…..

Q: (cuts in) At what age did you enter Modern School?

A: I started primary school at the age of 46.

Q: You said you entered primary school in 1946?

A: Yes. That was my official age.

Q: You said you were born in 1944?

A: Yes. That is my official age. I was born on 4th December 1939.

Q: My Lords, he was born in 1944. He has been lying, since he was born.

I don’t know of an official age. It is the first time I am hearing this.

Q: Do you remember you led thugs to snatch ballot boxes at Nawar-Ud-Deen unit, you led thugs there really but officially, you may not?

A: My Lords, I was 70 last December.

The second witness, Mr. Olusegun Adegbite, from Ejemu’s compound, Igbajo, denied knowing Ayobami Oni, a.k.a Kemba, who was allegedly murdered by the PDP thugs. He added that he went to the polling unit alongside his wife.

According to him, the process of voting took him five minutes.

Answering another question under cross examination, Adegbite, who denied being a cocoa farmer or an artisan, as recorded for him on the voters’ register by INEC, said he was 35 years old and that his wife’s name was Foluke Adegbite.

Following is an excerpt of his cross examination:

Q: Your wife is older than you?

A: No, I am older than my wife.

Q: Your wife voted that day too?

A: Yes, we went together to vote.

Q: Have a look at Exhibit 402 (B).

A. I cannot read, my Lords.

Q: But if you see your photograph there, you can identify it?

A: Yes.

Q: And you can identify the photograph of your wife?

A: Yes.

Q: Have you seen your photograph there? Look at the last photograph there. Is that for your wife?

A: It is my wife’s photograph.

Q: You say your wife is Foluke but you are pointing at Bidemi?

A: The last one is my wife.

Q: His wife is Item 16 and he is on Item 11. Bidemi is your daughter?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you remember the age you gave birth to your daughter, your first child?

A: About 16 years ago.

At this stage, Lawal-Rabana stood up and objected to the question that Akeredolu asked, arguing that the counsel was varying the content of the Exhibit.

He added that as a legal practitioner, he was registered by INEC as a consultant, but Akeredolu replied that INEC indeed knew him as a legal consultant and that he was registered as such.

The third witness, Simeon Falana, from Oke-Ola, Otan-Ayegbaju, who served as PDP agent on the day of the elections, told the court that the AC agent was the only one he saw at the polling unit.

Falana’s cross-examination went thus:

Q: Only the two of you signed it?

A: The agent of another party who signed it was AA (Action Alliance).

Q: If you have anything credited to you that the NDP agent signed the result sheet, will that not be a lie?

A: NDP did not sign.

Q: The result of the election was not counted in your unit?

A: It was counted.

Q: If there is any deposition credited to you that the result was counted at the collation centre, will that be a lie?

A: There is no truth in it.

Q: As a politician, in your unit after voting, the ballot box was taken to the collation centre where they were counted?

A: Yes.

The hearing into the petition continues today.

Comments

Abel Adegoke | Ilesa  | January 26th, 2010

The truth is gradually comng out of iits shelf.

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