Academic Disaster

There was pin drop silence at the Ondo State Election Petitions Tribunal in Akure yesterday when one of the expert witnesses called by Governor Olusegun Agagu to defend his mandate ended up defending his integrity for nearly seven hours.
Labour Party’s (LP’s)

Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is challenging the declaration of Agagu as winner of the April 14,2007 governorship election.

Although he was summoned to fault the report of Mr Adrian Forty,the finger print expert, Prof. Emmanuel Adegbeyeni spent most of the time defending what he claimed in his deposition on oath at the tribunal.

Adegbeyeni, who said he is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in his deposition on oath, told the tribunal during cross- examination that he was neither a Reader in the university nor could he remember the Registrar who signed his appointment as a professor.

The man, who claimed to be the first in black Africa to get a doctorate degree in Computer Science, could not operate a computer when he was given one by Mimiko’s counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun.

Also, he said he did not know the year the computer was invented and could not tell who invented it.

But when Olanipekun told him it was invented in 1963, he did not object to it.

Severally during the cross-examination, Adegbeyeni could not say exactly when he became a professor.He gave conflicting dates of 2001, 2002 and 2003.

He simply told the tribunal that he was an old man and could not remember all he did some years ago.