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Aregbesola’s Contribution To Law Of Evidence

Mar 16th, 2010 | By Bankole Alao David | Category: FEATURE

By J.o olaniyan

Electoral offences by their nature are criminal. The fact remains that any illegality perpetrated during elections are criminal. In the light of this and to hold any offender liable for committing any electoral offence, the offences have to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Any violent attack against the opposition or other party supporters during election is nothing short of terrorist attack and therefore criminal. Those who perpetrate violence during elections are election terrorists and enemies of democratic rule.

In very many election petitions going on in the country after the April 14, 2007 elections, petitioners hinged their pleadings on the fact that elections were violent and were marred by irregularities. The petitioners would want to prove that the other party won the elections through violent attacks on the members of the petitioner’s party, through stuffing of ballot boxes, with already thumb-printed ballot papers, intimidation and totting of guns which amounts to carrying arms and ammunition on the day of elections. Each of the enumerated electoral offences is criminal. The defence lawyers on questioning the witnesses of the petitioner in his submissions would want the election petition panel members to hold that the witnesses of the petitioner should be thrown out. The defence lawyers will further submit that the evidence should be proved beyond every reasonable doubt.

But at this juncture, one may ask, how can the offence like violent disruption of elections, intimidation, killing or maiming of the supporters of the petitioner’s party for instance, be proved beyond reasonable doubt? Violence and disruption of elections in some areas in Oyo State pleaded by Senator Abiola Ajimobi of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) against Adebayo Alao-Akala’s victory was thrown out because the police report countered Senator Ajimobi’s evidence that the elections that brought-in Alao-Akala were marred by violence. To further support the report by the police, Akala’s lawyers submitted that the petitioner relied on hearsay evidence and therefore, his evidences were not reliable. The petitioner’s pleading of violence was therefore thrown out by the judges. But if the petitioner was able to show graphically these violent attacks pleaded before the judges, Alao-Akala might have been held liable. If Senator Ajimobi was able to accompany his oral evidence with graphic submission, the result might have been the other way round.

With graphic submissions in election evidence, there is no doubt that Engineer Rauf Aregbesola blazed the trail in the difficult situation of proving election evidences beyond reasonable doubt. Aregbesola led the way in solving the problem of proving election petition evidences beyond reasonable doubt.

How did he do this? He went ahead after the April 2007 governorship elections in the state to employ the service of Adrian Forty, a forensic expert and expert in identifying fake ballot papers, over-voting and stuffing of ballot papers. The Osun State retrial tribunal had accepted all Aregbesola’s submissions and findings of the forensic experts were admitted by the tribunal judges as evidence. Although, some people misconstrued forensic as biological evidences, but forensic as properly defined is a critical evaluation of any document for judicial presentation. To this end, Aregbesola effectively adopted forensics to prove his evidences to show that elections were marred by irregularities, over-voting, fraud and irregularities.

To prove his case beyond reasonable doubt, Aregbesola also used video cameras to record what took place in many constituencies and wards in Osun State during the election. The tribunal judges accepted all the video clips that recorded violent attacks on the members of the opposition.

There were also records of physical stuffing of ballot papers, shooting, killing and maiming of innocent supporters of the petitioners. All the video clips were accepted by the tribunal judges. Evidences with regards to physical counting were also accepted as exhibits.

In the light of the above, Aregbesola’s efforts in this regard is definitely a land mark. Bravo to these learned judges.

In the graphic account of what happened during the 2007 governorship elections as presented by Aregbesola before the Osun State retrial tribunal judges, the judges watched, how the PDP thugs were totting guns during the elections.

Besides, the judges at the Ekiti re-run election tribunal under Justice Hamma Barka saw the amputated limb of a member of the opposition. He was shot on the thigh and the leg had to be amputated because the victim’s leg was completely destroyed.

From the foregoing, one can see that Aregbesola’s contributions were without doubt, a landmark in election petition evidences and therefore a great contribution to the law of evidence.

In the physical inspection and counting, there were sufficient and graphic evidence that thousands of votes were wrongly awarded to Olagunsoye Oyinlola. By the presentation of evidence in physical inspections, it was found that the result the INEC posted was progressively different; that what they wrote on form EC8Bs, could not be reconciled with what the INEC recorded on form EC8As, which are the results at the wards’ collation centers.

Physical inspection therefore showed clearly that the results got at the ward collation centers were at variance with those at the local government collation centers and were not the same with what were declared at the state collation centers. Aregbesola also used computer analysis of election materials.

The forensic experts in their discovery were able to tell the tribunal Judges that in many places in Osun State, especially in Ife-Central, Ife-East, Ife-South, Atakumosa West, Ifelodun, Boripe, Ayedaade, Isokan, Ifedayo and Odo Otin Loca Government Council Areas of the state, thousands of ballot papers were thumb-printed by just very few people.

Aregbesola is indeed an intelligent leader and political strategist. The people of Osun State will definitely enjoy his administration, which we all expect to come soon.

•Olaniyan, contributed this piece from Ede .

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