One of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agents in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election in Ogun State, Femi Adedayo has confessed to have distributed prepaid ATM cards to those who cast their votes for the party during the poll, in line with directives from their leaders.
Adedayo made the confession at the resumed hearing of a seven-count charge bordering on vote buying and other offences levelled against the governorship candidate of the PDP, Ladi Adebutu, before Hon. Justice A.A Akinyemi of the Ogun State High Court on Thursday.
The prosecution team, led by Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, called three witnesses in the vote-buying charges against Adebutu.
That is, even as the 8th prosecution witness, Celestina Appeal, a staff member of Zenith Bank, was called upon by the court to conclude her evidence, in which she stated that the prepaid cards were not all funded until March 16, 2023. The funding of the cards, she said, is reflected in Appendix b of the statement of account opened on March 3rd with the heading “card usage analysis.”
In her words: “On the 18th, 65,677 cards were utilized with a total transaction of 67,581 transaction counts. On the 19th, 81,060 cards were utilized, with a total transaction count of 84,360. On the 20th of March, the cards utilized were 14,999, with a total transaction count of 160,009. Approximately 160,000 cards were used within the three days. By utilization, it means the cash withdrawals were made. Apart from the request in Exhibit 22, 23 for production of 200,000 cards, no further request has been made.”
It would be recalled that some PDP members were apprehended by security agents in the state during the poll, with preloaded verve cards issued by Zenith Bank with the inscription of Dame Caroline Adebutu, Ladi Adebutu’s late mother.
Subsequently, Ladi Adebutu and other PDP leaders were arraigned in court, with several exhibits and an array of witnesses coming to substantiate the allegations against them.
In the same vein, on Thursday, Adedayo, who was called PW 10 under cross-examination, explicitly submitted: “On March 18, 2023, which was the governorship election day, at about 7 a.m., we went to Ijeun Tuntun, one of our leaders’ houses, known as Shonekan SS, a top PDP leader. We were many in his house. Five of us were asked to go to our units where we would work.
“We were two agents and three canvassers in all. We were going to work at Ewang. Shonekan led other leaders to encourage us to canvass people to vote for the PDP. We were given a bundle of 58 cards. The canvassers were already talking to voters after accreditation to vote for PDP on the promise that we would treat them well and that we would give them the cards if they voted for PDP. We shared ourselves. The voters will display their slips for the canvassers to see because the PDP logo is at the tail end of the slip.
Meanwhile, Adedayo’s position had earlier been confirmed by PW9, Segun Olabowale, who is a card carrying member of the PDP. In his testimony, he stated that after collecting 54 cards, he retained four for himself and used five to canvass for votes, before giving the rest to one, Oke Daniel.
According to him, he later turned the four prepaid cards he retained after the election into cash. He explained further that he gave the cards to a POS operator close to the polling unit and got N40,000, which was withdrawn on March 18 and 19, 2023.
Consequently, Adedayo’s PDP Party Agent card was tendered and admitted as Exhibit 27, while Olabowale’s PDP membership card was tendered and admitted as evidence.
Following the two confessions, PDP’s lead counsel, Gordy Uche, SAN, who appeared for all the defendants, subsequently sought an adjournment, which was granted by the trial judge, and the case was adjourned to the 5th, 6th, and 7th of June 2024 for continuation of hearing.
