•adjourns hearing till Thursday
The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has frowned at the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo to produce witnesses to testify in the petition they filed seeking the nullification of the outcome of the September 21, 2024 governorship election that held in the state.
At the resumed hearing of the petition on Tuesday, counsel to the PDP and Ighodalo, Mr Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, told the tribunal that most of their proposed witnesses, “suffered travel disruptions. My lords, this is the reason we are unable to present them today. We urge your Lordships to give us another date.
“We undertake that on the next date, we will bring as many witnesses as may be convenient for the tribunal. We will also work assiduously to prime down our witnesses,” he pleaded shortly after the witness that was testifying before the tribunal relocated its sitting from Edo state to Abuja, was discharged.
Dissatisfied with the development, Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal frowned at the petitioners for wasting the judicial time of the tribunal.
According to the tribunal, it had earlier asked other parties that also lodged petitions to challenge the outcome of the governorship election, to take fresh dates.
“What you are just telling us is not good at all. Why then did we ask the other petitioners to take dates? We should have heard them today,” Justice Kpochi fumed, adding that, “Call those your witnesses. Tell them to come, we are ready for them to come today.”
However, counsel to the petitioners pleaded that the witnesses may not be in the right frame of mind to mount the dock after their travel difficulties and appealed that, they should be given a new date, a request the tribunal granted and adjourned the case till Thursday, January 30, 2025.
Meanwhile, the witness that was discharged, Mr Oseyili Anenih, told the tribunal that though there were a total of 4,519 polling units in Edo state, the PDP and its candidate are challenging results from about 765 polling units.
Answering questions under cross-examination, Mr Anenih, who told the tribunal that he served as the Director of Research and Strategy for the PDP, admitted that he could not visit all the polling units during the election and added that most of the evidence the petitioners’ relied on were based on reports that were submitted by agents and experts.
He further told the tribunal that most copies of the results that agents of the party made available to him at the Situation Room, were not signed, maintaining that, if lawful votes that were cast at the election were sincerely collated, his candidate, Ighodalo, would have emerged victorious.
Answering questions from Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, who represented Governor Monday Okpebholo, the witness admitted that, though they did not have any physical access to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) Machines, that were used for the election, they however got some screenshots of it, which they tendered in evidence.
He said they had since subpoenaed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make the machines available before the tribunal.
While being cross-examined by counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, the PW-12, who is the lead witness for the petitioners in the matter, confirmed that he was not trained by INEC to play any role during the election and admitted that, none of the polling unit results was handed over to him personally by agents of the party.
However, while answering another question, he said: “Some of the local government collation agents brought their results straight to me because they were not allowed access to the State Collation Center.
“Some copies of election results in the Form EC8A that were handed to the agents were not legible. It is however not correct that the majority of the results that were brought by our agents were not stamped by INEC, though some of them were not.”
When he was handed one of the Exhibits to look at, the witness confirmed to the tribunal that, out of 16 copies of the results in the bundle, only three of them were stamped, adding, “To us, that three that were stamped was significant enough. It represents almost 20%.”
It will be recalled that the PDP and its candidate had approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify the election of Governor Okpebholo of the APC on the ground of alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act, adding that, Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of majority votes cast at the election as required by law.
It would be recalled that the Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal was relocated from Benin City to Abuja with effect from Monday, January 27, 2025, following security concerns.
In a notice issued by Mua’azu Bagudu, Secretary of the Edo State Election Tribunal, said that tthe ribunal will now hold its sessions at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), located along the Airport Road, Abuja.
The statement said; “I am directed to notify all parties that the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City has been relocated to Abuja”.
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