Ogun tribunal accepts 150,656 ballot papers as evidence

On Thursday, the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal accepted into evidence 150,656 ballots from the governor’s race on March 18.

According to Infostride News, Sunkanmi Oyejide, a star witness for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had video evidence submitted to the court.

Ladi Adebutu, the PDP candidate for governor, filed a petition contesting All Progressives Congress (APC) Governor Dapo Abiodun’s win, and these documents were admitted as evidence in support of that appeal.

A Forensic Examiner, former Deputy Superintendent of Police Reginald Nwoze, tendered the ballots.

The attorneys for the respondents filed an objection to the ballots’ admissibility, but they didn’t explain why until closing arguments.

Nwoze testified under cross-examination that he reviewed and analyzed ballots from 12 different LGAs around the state.

The ballots offered came, he said, from INEC, the country’s independent electoral body.

Nwoze stated that after analyzing the ballots, 37,401 of them had duplicate thumbprints, 3,470 had been smashed and smeared, and 109,785 had regular thumbprints.

Nwoze presented evidence to the court indicating that votes were allegedly cast in some ballot papers with white board markers rather than thumb prints.