Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ondo State has praised a police report alleging forgery of security reports on the 2007 gubernatorial election as the reason for the judicial defeat of its candidate and former governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu at the Court of Appeal.
The party, in a statement made available to Vanguard alongside a report of the Police on the election, lamented the continued sustenance of the Labour Party in government despite what it claimed were the security reports.
The police report allegedly fingered the erstwhile chairman of Labour Party, LP, Dr. Olaiya Oni, as the provider of the forged security reports to the LP legal team.
The report endorsed by the PDP Chairman, Ebenezer Alabi, and Secretary, Oyedele Ibine, follows contentions arising from a petition filed to the Inspector-General of Police by Dr. Agagu on the purported forgery of security report allegedly used in ousting him from power by the Court of Appeal in 2009.
The police report was endorsed by CP Ali Amodu.
PDP quotes police
PDP said: “A letter was written to the Director-General of the State Security Services, SSS, Abuja, to confirm if the SSS report in Ondo State during the 2007 gubernatorial elections were forged.
“The Director-General, in his reply, confirmed that the SSS reports tendered at the tribunal were forged and he clarified the differences between the agency’s authentic reports and the forged ones that were tendered.”
A letter was also written to the Registrar, Court of Appeal, Benin, where the case went on appeal, to furnish the records of proceedings of the case to enable the Police identify who tendered the documents.
“In vol. X of the records of proceeding obtained from Court of Appeal, Benin, it was observed that the nine forged security reports marked as exhibits 1100(1)-(9) were tendered across the bar.
“On the 11 March 2008, when Dr. Olaiya Oni, Chairman of the Labour Party, Ondo State chapter, gave his evidence in court, he identified the nine forged security reports as parts or the documents he received.
“Based on the findings from the records of proceedings that Dr. Oni identified and confirmed he was the person who received the forged SSS reports, he was invited and he volunteered cautionary statements to the Police.”
In the statement to the police, quoted by alleged report, Oni purportedly admitted that he received and passed on the alleged forged security report to the legal team.
Reports’ recommendation
In its conclusion and recommendation, the police report deposed: “From investigation conducted, it is clear that the security reports, which Oni admitted he received and gave to his lawyers to tender at the Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal, Akure, were forged.
“There is no doubt that Oni conspired with others he has refused to mention to forge the reports and handed them over to the legal team.
“It is, therefore, recommended that he be arraigned in court for forgery and uttering of forged documents.”
Ondo govt responds
The report and contention of PDP were, however, dismissed by the Ondo State Commissioner-nominnee for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, who said Oni should be prosecuted if he claimed to have compromised security reports.
He discredited Oni, who he said admitted leaving LP because he was not provided with patronage.
Akinmade said LP and the Ondo administration were looking beyond 2007 issues, saying that almost every human being that witnessed the election acknowledged Mimiko as the winner of that election, which forced the authorities to shift the declaration of the result to Abuja.
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