Sanwo-Olu, wife voted with invalid voter’s cards, witness tells tribunal

A witness told the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his wife, Ibijoke voted with invalid voter cards.

An agent of the Labour Party (LP) Dayo Israel, who was subpoenaed to testify in the petition filed by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, LP’s candidate, in the March 18 election, seeking to nullify the return of Gov. SanwoOlu and his deputy told the tribunal.

Israel told the court that he served as an agent for Labour for Unit 006, Ward 15, Lagos Island Local Government in the Governorship Election.

“I observed that the card reader showed their cards to be invalid but Sanwo-Olu and his wife were allowed to cast their votes and this is against INEC’s electoral process,” Israel said.

Under cross-examination from counsel to INEC, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Charles Edosomwan, the witness also claimed he was beaten up that day by some All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters and that he knew they were ruling party’s supporters from the way they spoke.

“I am not a member of the Labour Party but I was assigned as an agent. When the APC thugs recognised me as an LP agent, they beat me up. They also said if voters did not vote for APC, they would beat them too,” he said.

When asked by counsel to Governor Sanwo Olu Olu and his deputy, Muiz Banire (SAN) to describe how he was beaten, the witness said: “During casting of votes, 4 of them beat me up. I ran away, changed my clothes to disguise myself and came back to monitor the counting of votes.”

He also noted that there were cases of multiple casting of votes but INEC officials did not stop it.

“I observed more than 3-4 people voting more than once at the polling unit. INEC staff conducted the elections, though they looked the other way when this was going on.”

While answering questions from counsel to APC, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN) the witness revealed that a total number of 126 people were accredited at the polling unit where Governor Sanwo-Olu voted while APC had 121 votes, LP was given two votes.

The tribunal has adjourned till July 3 for the continuation of the hearing in the petition.

Sanwo-Olu was re-elected governor of Lagos State in the elections held in March.

He defeated both the LP candidate Rhodes-Vivour, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor.

He emerged winner after polling 762,134 votes while Rhodes-Vivour and Jandor got 312,329 and 62,449 votes respectively.