Musa Simon Reef and Sam Egwu
26 October 2008
Lokoja — The anomalies that trailed repeated elections that returned Alhaji Idris Ibrahim as governor Kogi State have been unearthed, as pictures of the late Afro-Beat King Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai were discovered to be among pictures of voters in the March 29 governorship election re-run in Kogi state.
The curious dramatic scene was enacted at the Kogi Election Petitions Tribunal during cross-examination of INEC Head of Operations, Mr Samuel Ogunjemilua, on the petition filed by former governor Abubakar Audu and the ANPP.
The drama, according to our correspondent, started playing when, at the resumption of the break, the petitioners' counsel called for INEC voters' register used in some local governments during the re-run election to be brought forward which were identified by the INEC official.
The document showed that a picture of former FCT Minsiter with the name Segun Otitoju voted in Kabba, while another voter with the name Ubele Ubele whose picture appeared in five places voted five times.
Another voter, Okpama Okpama, carrying the picture of a top government official under the administration of Governor Idris Ibrahim, appeared in two places and voted accordingly.
The picture of the late Afro-Beat King, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, bearing the name Babatunde Olasemgbe, also featured in Ijumu local government where he voted while the name of the late member of Kogi assembly, Alhaji Mohammed Onusagba appeared and was said to have cast his vote in Omala local government.
Earlier in the day, Ogunjemilua, while responding to questions put to him by Ekpa, had no choice but to agree that most of the relevant forms used in the conduct of the election were not properly authenticated by the presiding officers. He also revealed that most of the electoral officers who conducted the polls were different from those whose names appeared. He explained that the new officials were drafted in to replace electoral officers who failed to turn up for the exercise.
The INEC official told the tribunal that elections could be conducted without voters' register, as was the case with Idah Ward 10, where the presiding officer was not given voters' register, yet voting took place. During the cross-examination, the tribunal was told that results sheets of the election in Ankpa, Kabba-Bunu, Ajaokuta and Kogi-Kotonkarfe local governments, among others, were neither signed nor stamped by the presiding officers.
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