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It was shock and disbelief at the Justice J.S. Ikyegh of Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure as ballot papers meant for the Rivers and Cross River State Houses of Assembly Election were used to vote for the Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon Bakiita Bello in the April 14, 2007 election.
It was shock and disbelief at the Justice J.S. Ikyegh of Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure as ballot papers meant for the Rivers and Cross River State Houses of Assembly Election were used to vote for the Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon Bakiita Bello in the April 14, 2007 election.
To the utter surprise of all, over seven bundles of these strange ballot papers were found among the sacks brought to the tribunal by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), all thumb-printed in favour of the Speaker.
This startling revelation came to the fore on Saturday during the joint recount of ballot papers used for the contentious election ordered by the tribunal in the petition filed by Adebisi.O.C of the Labour Party (LP) who is challenging the purported victory of Bakiita of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Akoko North West Constituency I of the state.
During the recounting exercise, it was discovered that several of these ballot papers meant for the two States Houses of Assembly most of which were still intact with their counterfoils were all thumb-printed for the PDP. The exercise also unearthed a lot of unwholesome practices perpetrated in the election of Bakiita.
In the result declared by INEC after the vexed election, Bakiita polled 8,550 to Adebisi's 6,104 to emerge as winner, a development which Adebisi protested, insisting that the election was rigged in favour of Bakiita by INEC and state government officials during the election. He is now praying the tribunal to return him as duly elected.
In a similar vein, glaring cases of over-voting were discovered during the recount of ballot papers ordered by the same tribunal in Okitipupa Constituency I, Ese-Odo Constituency and Ilaje Constituency II of the Ondo State House of Assembly which had been recounted.
In Okitipupa1 for instance, where Jumoke Akindele of the LP is challenging the victory of Obagbemi Oladunjoye of the PDP, the total votes returned for all the political parties which contested in the constituency was 33,630 while only 26,639 used ballot papers were found and counted.
Again, in Ese-Odo Constituency, where Kalasuwe I.O. of the LP is kicking against the return by INEC of Igbekele Bolodeoku of the PDP, INEC returned a total vote of 34,464 votes for all the parties while only 21,529 used ballot papers were found and counted.
The same scenario played itself out in Ilaje II Constituency where INEC recorded a vote of 31,974 votes for all contestants as against 20, 490 used ballot papers it supplied to the area.
Kunle Odidi of the LP is contesting the purported victory of Atikase Otito of the PDP.