Four Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) witnesses on Monday told the Ekiti State Governorship
Election Petition Tribunal that the electoral umpire did nothing to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gov
John Kayode Fayemi in the July 14 election in the state.
NAN reports
that the witnesses said this as INEC opened its defence before the tribunal,
sitting in FCT High Court Apo, in the petition brought by the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Prof. Olusola Kolapo,
challenging the declaration of Fayemi as the winner of the election.
The electoral body, APC and Gov Fayemi were joined as respondents in the
petition.
The
witnesses, Fadipe Titus; Olafusi Frederick; Bolade Funmilola and Olori
Olubunmi, all made the declaration while being crossed examined by the counsel
for APC, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN,.
The
witnesses, who were Electoral Officers for Moba; Emure; Ise-Orun and Ekiti
South-West local government areas, further told the tribunal that the
allegation of irregularities during the election was not true.
Fadipe
said the electoral officials, who worked under him during the election, carried
out their duties fairly and diligently in substantial compliance with the Electoral
Act and the INEC guideline.”
He said
though the ad hoc staff, who were serving corps members, deployed by INEC in
the election were trained, they still made some honest mistakes.
He denied
the allegation of polling officials deliberately voiding votes meant for the
petitioners, saying that, “no presiding officer would deliberately void ballot
papers”.
Under
cross-examination by the petitioners’ counsel, Mallam Yusuf Alli, SAN, the
witness said the corps members used for the election as ad hoc staff, were not
known to him before.
He said that
he did not visit all the polling units in his local government, declaring that
” it is not possible (to do so)”.
According to
Olafusi, it is not true that the electoral body manipulated documents in favour
of both APC and Gov Fayemi.
While
admitting that the ad hoc staff committed some honest errors, he declared that,
“I want to confirm that they did their work fairly and diligently as trained.
In all human endeavours, errors and omission are made.”
He said that
where such honest errors were made, the election officials were entitled to
correct same, saying that, “nobody is above mistake”.
Answering a
question from Mallam Alli, the witness stated that he did not know any of the
agents of parties who served in his local government during the election
personally.
He said that
he worked with 383 ad hoc staff during the election, adding that all of them
were trained by INEC and that they wrote competence test a week before the
election days.
The
Electoral Officer for Ise-Orun LGA, Ayodele, said that all the ballot papers
issued by the electoral body for election in the local government were
accurately accounted for.
Olafusi,
under cross-examination by the petitioners’ counsel, said that there were 108
polling units in the local government area, adding that she only visited four
wards and picked some units there for visit.
On her part,
Olori declared that the allegations made against INEC were bogus.
According to
her, “there was no report, oral or written, from the agent of PDP or the
party’s candidate, Prof. Kolapo, complaining about the conduct of the
election.”
She added
that she was not aware of any complaints about the conduct of the election in
Ekiti South-West LGA was sent to INEC headquarters in Abuja or even in the
state.
Olori stated
that she could not remember the number of ballot papers she issued to polling
officials for the conduct of the election.
“I am not in
the position to know the number (of ballot papers) used and unused as I am
here,” she added.
In another
development, INEC, through its counsel, Chief Charles Uwensuyi-Edosom
It also
tendered the manual for election officials in 2018. All the documents were
admitted by the tribunal. (Newsflash247).
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