Ladi Adebutu
By Our Reporter
The Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ogun State in the last election, Mr. Ladi Adebutu was docked for vote-buying and money laundering at the High Court Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The prosecuting counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, in his submission, called a witness, Mr Seyi Binuyo, a Scheme Executive at the Interswitch Limited, who testified on the alleged issuance of 200,000 preloaded verve cards for voting buying preferred against Adebutu by the Federal Government.
Binuyo explained that the specimen of the cards sent to Interswitch by Adebutu, through his bank, a new generation bank, was not the same issued by the bank for the purpose of alleged vote buying on the day of the election.
He said: “What was printed is not the same with what we approved. The verve brand mark is not on exhibit 8. The front design of exhibit 15 has a picture, while exhibit 8 does not contain a picture. The data on top of the card is Dame Caroline scheme is on exhibit 8. The design that was submitted for approval is written prepaid.”
In a related development, Mr Oke Aina, a farmer and resident of Kuto, Abeokuta, confessed that one Segun Adebowale, a PDP agent approached him on the day of election to help the party canvass for votes among the electorate through the said preloaded verve cards, saying each pack of the card contained 25 pieces.
Aina confirmed that the preloaded cards had inscriptions of Adebutu’s mother, Dame Caroline Adebutu, conspiciously on it, as he categorically mentioned about five beneficiaries of the cards in his polling unit.
