Ogun tribunal: Two INEC staff claim thugs disrupted voting, burnt ballot papers

Two ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday testified before the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The duo, Ezeajaegbu Desmond, a former National Youth Service Corps member and Okitipki Mogbeyi, who were Presiding Officer and Assistant Presiding Officer respectively, testified that unknown thugs disrupted voting in their various polling units.

Desmond, who served at Polling Unit 0012, Ward 6, Makun Sagamu, said during cross-examination that thugs attacked his polling unit and set electoral materials on fire.

Desmond explained that his INEC reflective jacket was also burnt.

“I was able to escape with the BVAS machine only. We were trained to let go of materials if attacked,” he said.

According to the INEC ad hoc staff, about 50 persons had voted before the hoodlums stormed the polling station with weapons and eventually burnt all voting materials.

While cross-examining Desmond, counsel to INEC, Remi Olatubora, disowned him, saying he was never an INEC Presiding Officer.

According to the counsel, Desmond was supposed to contact INEC before appearing at the tribunal, even though the subpoena was addressed to him.

Olatubora described him as the first to testify against his client, saying: “You were never a Presiding Officer, you are an arranged witness, a procured witness, a suborn witness. You were paid to testify for PDP.”

Desmond, however, insisted that he was a Presiding Officer, tendering evidence of the money paid to him by the electoral umpire and denying having been paid by the PDP to be a witness at the tribunal.

Mogbeyi also told the tribunal that her polling unit was attacked by unknown political thugs, who disrupted voting.

She said she did not report the incident to the police because security agents also witnessed the invasion.

She denied being paid by PDP to testify, saying: “I honoured the subpoena because I didn’t want to go to jail. It was addressed to me personally, not INEC.”