Police Opens Adeleke’s Trial in Alleged Exam Malpractice *As witnesses deny seeing him in exams hall

 

The Inspector General of Police (IG) on Wednesday opened trial of

Senator Ademola Adeleke and four others in an alleged examination malpractice with revelations by witnesses that they did not see the Senator in the examination hall during the 2017 National Examination Council (NECO) exams.

Two witnesses called by the police, Buhari Moshood and Isamotu

Funmilayo, who were supervisors in the examination at Ojo-Aro

Community Grammar School Centre in Osun State denied seeing the senator in the exam hall on the election day.

Led in evidence by counsel to the police, Simon Lough, the first prosecution witness, Buhari Moshood, informed the Federal High Court in Abuja that on June 21, 2017, while acting as supervisor, he saw five matured men among the students billed to participate in the NECO exams.

The witness, who claimed to have been a teacher for 35 yearstold

justice Inyang Ekwo, that he can only identify Adeleke Sikiru

(2nddefendant) among the five matured men who were participating in

the EnglishLanguage Paper that he supervised.

The witness, who identified an exam paper bearing the name of Adeleke

Ademola insisted that he did not see the defendant on the seat in the

exam hall and that he did not challenged the adult persons in

the examination hall because it was not his duty to do so.

Under cross examination by Dr. Alex Izinyon SAN, counsel to

Senator Adeleke, the witness said he will be surprised to see NECO issuing certificate to anybody who did not sit for exams. He admitted that the identities of all the students in their identity cards were in order and that there was no police presence in the school to ask for the person of Adeleke.

Moshood also admitted that the examination went well and that no candidate can impose himself on the school for the purpose of the examination. Answering a question, the witness admitted that he cannot know all the students who sat for the examination and insisted

that there was nocheating on the exams day and that the exam was free

and fair.

The second witness, Isamotu Funmilayo, who claimed to havebeen a

teacher for 13 years, in her own evidence told the court that

shesupervised English Literature Paper on July 17, 2017, and that she

saw twomatured men in the exam hall but can only identify Adeleke

Sikiru, whom shesaid sat quietly with his exams papers.

Under cross examination by Izinyon, the witness deniedseeing Ademola

Adeleke in the exam hall. She further told the court that the resultof

the exam belonging to Senator Adeleke, where he scored C5 was shown to

herby the police at the State Investigation and Intelligence Bureau,

Oshogbo, OsunState.

The second witness further told the court that the authoritiesof the

school have duties to register students for the exams and that the

examsshe supervised was most peaceful and that there was no exam

malpracticethroughout the period of her supervision.

Meanwhile, Justice Ekwo has adjourned further trial tillApril 2, 3 and

4 at the instance of the prosecutor, who claimed that he hasbeen

deployed out of Abuja for the 2019 general election.