NJC PROBE: MTN CALL LOGS GENUINE -OSUN PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State chapter yesterday castigated some sections of the media as it insisted that the MTN call logs before the panel, set up by the National Judicial Council on allegations of malpractices over Osun and Ekiti states governorship appeals, were genuine.

The party said in a statement
signed by its acting Chairman, Otunba Sunday Ojo-Williams that some certain sections of the media had been misrepresenting facts that had emerged from the proceedings of the probe.

According to the party, 'reports carried by some of these newspapers, whose affiliation is well known, in their Friday, June 10, 2011 editions to the effect that MTN and the National Security Adviser (NSA) 'disowned' the call logs before the panel amount to deliberate falsehood, released by those afraid of justice to mislead members of the public.

'The said reports were not only false, but they were also cleverly crafted to blackmail, intimidate and put the panel in a tight corner it seeks to do justice in the matter before it,' the party argued. To prove its case against the media, the party argued that one of the newspapers attributed its story to the National Security Adviser (NSA) who did not appear before the panel on the day in question. The NSA appeared almost a month ago to tender call logs of Justice Salami and some other telephone subscribers made available to his office by MTN and other service providers.

The party contended that the MTN manager brought by Justice Salami on Thursday, June 9, 2011 confirmed during cross examination, that MTN supplied the call logs to the NSA, and the witness was further made to compare and confirm that the contents of the logs supplied by them were the same as the ones tendered by the NSA.     It said the MTN's representative could not have disclaimed the call logs; knowing full well that there were documents before the panel, which incontrovertibly showed that the logs were genuine. The PDP stated that Justice Salami himself confirmed in his written response that he spoke with, at least, one of the people mentioned in the petition.

Also, on June 1, 2011, the party argued that Justice Salami brought as witness, Kebbi State ACN governorship candidate, Turaki Kabiru Tanimu, who admitted before the panel that he exchanged text messages with Justice Salami at 4 a.m on Friday, November 26, 2010-the day the Osun judgment was delivered.

According to the PDP: 'As for the ACN in Osun State, which has started celebrating the falsehood released by its megaphones, it should endeavour to ask its links in MTN, the content of a letter, reference number CR:3000/LS/AG/ V.14/81 dated February 1, 2011; authored by MTN's commercial legal department, with the title: RE: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON NUMBERS 08034004887 AND 08034010700.

'That information alone, should tell ACN that any celebratory posturing is obviously misplaced.

'We urge the media to be wary of characters who, in their desperate attempt to further pollute the stream of justice, plant fallacious stories in partisan newspapers.  'For the avoidance of doubt, PDP is not in the business of forging documents.  Those who are master forgers know themselves and the whole world knows them.'