Aregbesola, Oyinlola trade accusations

24.02.2008

The Engineer Rauf Aregbesola Campaign Organisation has refuted claim by the governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola,that the ac gubernatorial candidate “lied” and that the AC once praised the tribunal for doing a good job.

In a statement signed by Jumoke Ogunkeyede, Oyinlola purportedly claimed that the AC candidate “lied” that the forensic expert brought to testify as witness analysed the ballot papers used for the election in the United Kingdom.

He said if anyone had perjured himself, it was Oyinlola who had done so.” At no time did the AC candidate and his counsels claim there was physical examination of the election materials in UK. To attribute such a claim to Aregbesola is not only false, it is inaccurate and mischievous”, adding that “ what we claimed, and what is true, is that these documents were scanned by a certified and qualified agent of Mr. Adrian Forty, the UK-based expert. The Nigerian based agent, Mr. Tunde Yeleka, who coordinated the scanning, then sent what came out of the process of scanning to the UK for analysis.

“Oyinlola knows what scanning is, the tribunal knows this. The contrary claim by Oyinlola is therefore mischievous, misleading, incorrect and perverse subversion of the truth and the process of justice in a desperate attempt to consolidate a wild electoral robbery. Oyinlola and the tribunal deliberately confused the scanning of the documents with the use of such a result of scanning for the process of expert examination and analyses,”he said.

On Oyinlola’s claim that the AC once praised the tribunal for doing a good job, he also said it was “grossly untrue” as Aregbesola only elaborated that the judiciary had demonstrated sufficient clout, courage and capacity to defend the weak, uphold justice and defend democracy.

Swiftly,the Chief Press Secretary of Oyinlola, Mr Lasisi Olagunju, has expressed surprise at the sudden u-turn made by the AC on the matter, “even after it admitted just on Friday that it took samples of ballot papers abroad for analysis.

“ AC spokesman, Mr. Lai Mohammed, in his Thursday statement said: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, the tribunal granted us leave to inspect, investigate and analyse the ballot papers in the office of INEC. In line with common practice.However, we took samples ,which were then analysed abroad due to the absence of such analytical facilities, here,”he stated.

“In the light of Lai’s statement quoted above, we want the AC and Aregbesola to explain what they meant by “samples” if they are now saying no ballot paper was taken abroad for analysis,”, Olagunju added.

On the ruling, the PDP asked the AC why it did not file Adrian Forty’s affidavit with the petition as prescribed by law, why their lawyer claimed on oath that he “was physically present” during the inspection when he was not, and why Aregbesola had to disobey the court which specifically said the inspection/analysis should be done in the premises of INEC in Osogbo."