A somewhat ‘slippery, dodgy and two-faced’ witness of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iymau was cut to size by an unarmed but fiery lawyer of the All Progressives Party (APC) and Governor Godwin Obaseki at the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City on Tuesday.
The unfortunate witness, Mr. Omoaka Solomon, who was Principal Witness (PW 11), did not get his facts straight and was soon pinned down for prevarication during cross-examination by the respondents’ counsels namely Barr. Oyinye, Barr. Oyeyipo and Barr. Fagbemi among others. The issue, which brought him to grief, was his complaints over accreditation and multiple voting in the September 2016 election.
Omoaka, who hails from ward One, Agenegbode, Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo state was just one, and the first in tow, of a host of PDP witnesses who were escorted to the frying pan by the respondents’ counsels on Tuesday before he melted away.
In his deposition, PW 11 claimed that there was no sign of accreditation on the voters’ register for polling unit 6, yet in his oral evidence, he denied his earlier claim by saying, “Not all voters were accredited before voting. I made typographical error in my deposition”.
Continuing, he said, “I voted in unit 2 and one Joseph was the PDP agent who signed the result sheet”.
However, when shown the result with his own signature, he owned up and agreed that he signed it himself adding that his party had 5 agents in that same polling unit.
