Kwara Guber Tribunal - Result Sheet Signed 3 Weeks Before Election

[Defender]

Irregularities emerged last Friday at the Kwara State governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Ilorin,as Form EC8A for Somaso polling unit 001 of Lafiagi Ward 1, showed that the result sheet for the unit was signed and dated April 2nd, 2011, exactly 24 days before the election was held.

The irregularity surfaced during cross-examination of one Muhammed Ladan, the PDP ward supervisor and a witness to PDP's Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed and his deputy, Peter Kishra.

Action Congress of Nigeria's Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN) is challenging the declaration of Ahmed as winner of the April 26 poll, praying the tribunal to nullify results in councils and wards where widespread irregularities took place and praying the court to announce him as the duly-elected governor of the state,based on the highest number of valid votes.

Testifying before the tribunal, Ladan claimed in Paragraph 6 of his statement on oath that, "ACN agents voluntarily did not sign the results where their party lost", but the claim contradicted the result sheet from the ward.

Afraid that Form EC8B was certain to fault his claim, Ladan hurriedly sought to change the claim to read that ACN signed the result, a change of evidence-in-chief with oral evidence, which the tribunal had said was impossible.

Ishola Raheem, a PDP ward supervisor for Pakumo Ward 2 of Moro Local Government Council Area of the state, claimed in his statement on oath and during cross-examination by ACN counsel that he signed the result sheet for the ward, but entries on the CTC of Form EC8B showed the claim to be false because neither Raheem nor any other party agent signed the result as required by the law.

The testimony of one Mohammed Sabah Mohammed of Kpada Ward of Pategi Local Government was also discredited,after his claim to be a 28-year-old was found to be false, as the voter's register for the area showed that Mohammed was aged 36 as at 2010, when he registered to vote.

Whereas Mohammed had claimed in his statement on oath that one Dr. Timothy Gana of ACN was insincere to have told the tribunal that the ballot was fraudulent because he (Gana) was never at the polling unit, Mohammed later back-tracked, when he told the tribunal last Friday that he could not identify the said Dr. Gana if he meets him anywhere.

Mahmoud Sulayman, another witness, who claimed to be PDP ward supervisor for Lanwa Ward in Ilorin-East Local Government Council Area, disclosed that everything went smoothly and in accordance with the Electoral Act and told the tribunal that the PDP collation agent and others signed the result sheet in his presence at the ward collation centre.

But the Form EC8B for the Lanwa Ward contradicted the claim of Sulayman because neither the PDP agent nor those of other parties signed the result sheet for the ward, in line with the claim of ACN's allegation that votes were disrupted and that no collation took place.

Osun Defender