Court Admits evidence of Adebutu’s Bank Account Details

The Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal has admitted in evidence the bank account statement of the petitioner, Ladi Adebutu.

TrackNews Media reports that Tribunal also admitted in evidence the report of the production of 200,000 units of top-up ATM cards, a letter of authority from the petitioner to open a Zenith bank account from which the top-up cards were preloaded with N10,000 each, and a paper showing the sample of the preloaded cards.

The exhibits were presented to the court by a subpoenaed staff of Zenith Bank PLC, Celestina Appeal, who was discharged immediately after submitting the documents.

At the resumption of hearing on Monday, the first respondent, Governor Dapo Abiodun, through his counsel, Taiwo Osipitan, accused Adebutu of engaging in vote buying.

Osipitan called one subpoenaed witness and two other witnesses putting the total number of witnesses at five.

Odesanya Olalekan, one of the witnesses, narrated to the court how some workers of the PDP candidate had disrupted voting in his polling unit 002, Oke-Eri, Wesley Primary School, Ijebu North East Local Government because of the distribution of preloaded ATM cards

During cross-examination by the petitioner’s counsel, Gordy Uche, the witness recanted his earlier claim, saying the election was concluded at his polling unit, but was canceled due to over-voting.

Speaking shortly after the proceedings, Counsel to the petitioner, Uche, said the petitioners were surprised that the 2nd respondent asked for an adjournment after calling just three witnesses.

“It went well again today, the second respondent called his defence today by calling more witnesses first, they started with a Zenith Bank official who came and tender some documents. We are surprised that the second respondent asked for an adjournment again for tomorrow, but we will be here again tomorrow.

“They said they are looking for their documents, but we would give them the benefit of the doubt and we would be here again tomorrow to continue with the testimonies of their witnesses. They have also assured us that they would close their case tomorrow.

“We are optimistic that, very soon this whole trial will come to an end and then the tribunal will have the opportunity to go and write a well-detailed judgement.”

Recall that Dapo Abiodun was declared winner of the 18th March gubernatorial election, after winning the polls with a margin of 13,915 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Adebutu and his party, sued Abiodun, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).