JONATHAN: EDO GOV DENIES MEDIA REPORT

.Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has denied ever saying that President Goodluck Jonathan voted four times during the April0 2007 elections.Oshiomhole was reacting to a news report published in a national daily which alluded that Oshiomhole told some US diplomats in December 2008, that President Goodluck Jonathan voted four times as vice president in the April 2007 elections.

A statement by the Special Adviser on Media Affairs to the Governor, Mr. Tony Iyare, revealed: 'We are completely at a loss on how the newspaper came to that conclusion which is attributed to the highly controversial whistleblower site, Wikileaks and claimed to have been made exclusively to it.

'We wish to say that at no time did the governor ever made such a weighty allegation against President Goodluck Jonathan. It is obvious that there was a clear mix-up in the story as the person in reference was the former Military Vice President, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, whose name was tendered in court as having voted four times during the epic case to regain the mandate popularly given to Oshiomhole by the Edo people and not President Goodluck Jonathan.'

'In addition, what was tendered in court was the electoral register bearing the names of voters in Edo State which had nothing to do with Jonathan who voted in Bayelsa.

'While we still ponder over the import of the strange linkage to the President, we are particularly moved not to suspect that the newspaper is opening its flanks to the whims of mischief makers or some unscrupulous elements who deliberately wish to drive a wedge between Jonathan and Oshiomhole.

'We wish to place on record that there was no where either in the tendered court documents or the brief with the US diplomats where President Jonathan's name featured as haven voted four times.

'We want to plead that the media should endeavour to verify its facts painstakingly before going to press in order to avoid causing unnecessary disaffection.'