Ademola Adeleke, the governor-elect of Osun State, has acknowledged that there was excessive voting in six polling places in the State of the Living Spring on July 16.
Adegboyega Oyetola, the current governor, had claimed that the overvoting was recorded in 750 units. He said that this allegation refuted his claim.
The number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) acquired was somewhat higher than the number of registered voters in certain polling units, according to a YIAGA evaluation of the election.
In 30 polling locations, YIAGA identified a disparity of 1,882 PVCs.
Ismail Omipidan, the governor's chief press secretary, insisted last week that the YIAGA study supported his assertion that Governor Oyetola had lost the vote count rather than the election.
In a statement through his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke accused the governor of allegedly sponsoring posts that he (Adeleke) admitted that there was over-voting during the election and accused Oyetola of misinterpreting of facts before the tribunal.
He explained that, his defence at the tribunal disproved Oyetola’s claim of over-voting in 750 polling as it was created by the incomplete data of BVAS based on the unsynchronised BVAS report that was used by the petitioners.
The statement further affirmed that the false over-voting claim had nothing to do with the figures on the BVAS machine and the Forms EC8A, explaining that full statement of the governor-elect filed on oath at the tribunal was explicit and detailed.
It reads: “For the benefit of members of the public, there are two aspects to the defence with respect to APC’s claim of over-voting. The first aspect is that the over-voting in 750 polling units as claimed by Oyetola/APC in their petition is false over-voting created by the incomplete data of BVAS based on the unsynchronised BVAS report.
“This does not represent what is on the BVAS machine itself and the Forms EC8A. The correct result is as captured in the synchronised BVAS report which tallies with the data on the BVAS MACHINE itself.
“The defence also affirmed further that even if the false over-voting in the unsynchronised BVAS report is unlikely admitted, the PDP will still be leading if votes from the affected six polling units are removed, adding however that such admission is however impossible because the Tribunal will never rely on the unsynchronised BVAS report because is at variance with what is contained on the BVAS machine itself.
“From the analysis on the BVAS machine itself and the Form EC8A which are the primary source as against BVAS report which is secondary, real over-voting occurred in only six polling units.”