Adeleke’s forensic examiner confirms over voting in Osun governorship election
…forensic report says Adeleke scored 402, 349 and Oyetola 374, 256- Adeleke aide
A Stastician and Forensic Examiner, Samuel Oduntan has again told the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal that there were over-voting in the governorship election that brought in Governor Ademola Adeleke in some of the polling units he examined.
However a press release by the Spokesman of Gov Ademola Adeleke clarified that Forensic report admitted as exhibit yesterday at the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal affirmed Senator Ademola Adeleke duly won the July 16 election with 402,349 votes to beat Mr Gboyega Oyetola who polled 374,256.
The report which the Tribunal allegedly accepted as a key document according to the Kunle Somirin posited that the above figures were arrived at after reviewing cases of irregularities.
This is just as another witness, Reverend Samuel Bunmi Jenyo, who claimed to be a Personal Assistant to Governor Adeleke said, the number of days between the date Adeleke obtained his Diploma Certificate in Penn Foster High School on 16th July, 2021 and Graduation from Atlanta Metropolitan College on 9th of August 2021 where he obtained his first degree was only 24 days.
The witnesses testified before the Justice Tertsea Kume-led tribunal at the resumed hearing of the petition filed by Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the declaration of Ademola Adeleke as the Governor of the State.
Oduntan, while giving evidence in defence of Adeleke’s declaration said, he was paid by Adeleke to extract information through physical inspection of BVAS Machines used for the election and compared it with the form EC8 series where he discovered that over-voting occured in some polling units, particularly six units in Ede South.
The witness told the panel that in Ward 4 unit 7, of Ede South, the accreditation figure he mentioned in his witness statement was 313, while the accreditation on the BVAS report was 383, which showed over-voting.
Effort of the Adeleke’s counsel, Onyeachi Ikpeazu SAN to prevent the witness from making comparison on the BVAS report and the result announced to show over-voting was overruled by the tribunal following the arguments of the petitioners’ counsel, Akin Olujinmi SAN that there was no law preventing him from cross-examining the witness.
The witness also testified that for ward 4 unit 8 of Ede South Local Government, the accreditation figure on the witness statement was 830, while the accreditation figure on BVAS report presented by INEC was 793, showing the over-voting of 37.
He said though, he did not work as INEC official on the election day, but carried out physical inspection of the BVAS machines where he carried out his analysis.
Also in his evidence, Reverend Jenyo, appeared before the tribunal and tendered Adeleke’s certificates, bearing Penn Foster High School and Atlanta Metropolitan State College.
Claiming that part of his responsibility as Adeleke’s P.A was to keep his personal documents, he said he has never worked in any of the institutions purported to have been attended by the Governor.
He added that though his International Passport does not show he attended Adeleke’s graduation in US, he claimed that he attended the Graduation ceremony.
After the cross examination of the two witnesses, the Adeleke’s counsel closed his case.
Subsequently, counsel for PDP, Alex Izinyon SAN also opened his case and told the panel that he would not be calling any witness but would be relying on the evidence of the two other respondents.
He then tendered some documents and closed his case.
The tribunal then adjourned till January 13, 2023 for the parties in the matter to adopt their final written addresses, as the respondents were granted nine days to file written addresses, petitioners to file addresses within seven days and respondents to file reply on point of law within three days respectively.
In the interpretation of the tribunal proceedings, Adeleke’s proceedings sent by Adeleke’s CPS.
The forensic expert, Mr Samuel Oduntan posited that “pursuant to the Order of this Honourable Tribunal dated 2nd day of September, 2022 directing the 1st Respondent (INEC) to allow the 2nd Respondent inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the Osun State Governorship Election, the 2nd Respondent instructed me to carry out the physical inspection as well as digital forensic examination on the BVAS machine devices used for the election.”
The Report noted that the forensic expert noted that he is familiar with all relevant Electoral Documents based on experience since 1999 viz: Voter Registers, Form EC8 series, EC25 Series, EC40 series, Ballot papers, other relevant electoral forms/ Guidelines and electoral devices. Oduntan noted that the Respondent instructed him to carry out statistical analysis on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) form EC8 Series used during the conduct of the election and also to carry out Digital Forensic Examination of the BVAS machines used in the conduct of election.
“I examined the following documents (materials) / BVAS machices obtained from or supplied by INEC: CTC of Forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C & EC8D ii) CTC of Forms EC40G (where provided) iii) INEC Osun State Directory of Polling Units, 2022 iv) BVAS Authentication Report v) BVAS Machines vi) INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections, 2022 and (vii) Manual for Election Officials 2022.”
The report posited that of the 750 polling units being challenged by the petitioner, only six have issues as per over-voting as alleged in the petition with 771 votes of APC affected while affected votes of the PDP was 1,022.
