From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for the September 21st Edo State governorship election, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, has tendered more documentary evidence to support their petition in continuation of their case at the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
All the documents were provisionally admitted in evidence and marked as exhibits by the Tribunal in spite of objections from counsel to the respondents (INEC, Governor Monday Okpebholo, and All Progressives Congress).
Additional documents tendered yesterday from the bar by counsel to the petitioners, Ken Mozia, SAN, were 55 Certified True Copies (CTC) of polling units’ voters register used in the election, CTC of 56 accreditation figures of extracts from INEC’s Bimodal Voters Accreditation Systems (BVAS), and 72 Certified True Copies of extracts of accreditation figures from the BVAS device.
Others included Certified True Copies of INEC’s Results Viewing (IREV) containing Form EC8A, 70 CTCs of INEC’s Polling Units Booklets containing Form EC25B, 66 copies of polling units’ voters register, and 125 copies of Form EC8A from IREV (all Certified True Copies). Additionally, 125 copies of Form EC8A from IREV, directly certified by INEC, and 101 copies of Form EC8A, CTC of Edo State BIVAS of Polling Unit by Polling Unit’s (PUs) Report, as well as a certificate of compliance by INEC, were tendered.
Besides, the petitioners’ counsel also tendered in court CTC of the certificate of compliance with BIVAS machines’ report in respect of the 133 polling units earlier tendered as exhibits in the petition.
Counsel to the respondents, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN, Offiong Offiong SAN, and Chief Ferdinand Orbih SAN, after raising objections to the admissibility of the documents, reserved their reasons for their objections to the petitioners’ documents to address at a later stage.
At the hearing yesterday, counsel to INEC, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN, did not object to the admission of the certificate of compliance with BIVAS machines used in 133 polling units, but counsel to the second and third respondents, Offiong and Orbih, objected and reserved their reasons.
The PDP and its candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, are challenging INEC’s declaration of Governor Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the September 21, 2024 gubernatorial election.