BENIN CITY – A Jack-of-all-trades clergyman cum People’s Democratic Party witness met with ridicule yesterday as he was discovered to have registered twice after he sworn an oath by the Bible, and lied under the same oath.
This was as the Election Tribunal sitting at the Benin High court in Benin City resumed Wednesday.
The witness, ‘Clergyman’ Bright Osaro Osarumwen, who was principal witness 29 (PW 29) for the petitioners (Peoples’ Democratic Party and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu), appeared before the court to testify against the credibility of the September 28, 2016 election in Edo.
However, he was discharged having confessed to his fraud and having agreed that accreditation and voting went smoothly.
Initially, Osarumwen from Aduwawa quarters, Ikpoba-Okha local government, who deposited in his affidavit that he was a clergyman and a businessperson, claimed that he neither registered nor voted.
During cross-examination, however, counsels to the respondents – All Progressives Congress (APC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Governor Obaseki – exposed his game to the court to wit that he registered as a public servant on one occasion and as a businessperson on another occasion.
This was after he was shown the voters’ register where his registration appeared twice with the same picture and name, but carrying different occupations.
Sensing that his game was up, he initially admitted to his trickery, but upon giving it a second thought, he blamed the discrepancies on typographical errors.
This game too was soon exposed and it was revealed that he, PW 29 was not just a clergyman, a businessperson and a public servant, but also a registered nurse which he never deposed to in his affidavit.
As before, he then went on to confess, and then refuted his earlier grievances at the Edo election saying, “I agree accreditation and voting went smoothly. I am a Registered Nurse (RN).”
