Edo election tribunal: INEC closes case without witnesses 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, closed its case defending the September 21 governorship election in Edo State without calling a single witness.

The electoral umpire had on Wednesday tendered documents relating to the election with a promise to call five of its witnesses in defence of its declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) candidate, Monday Okpebholo, as the winner.

However, when the matter was called yesterday, INEC, through its lead counsel, Kanu Agabi, informed the court that it has reviewed the case and thinks it would be sensible to close its defence.

“After we left you yesterday, we gave more thought to the matter and came to the conclusion that the sensible thing to do is to close the case of the 1st Respondent, which we hereby do,” the senior lawyer said.

Agabi claimed that the 1st Respondent did justice to the case during the cross-examination of the petitioner’s witnesses.

Responding,  Mr Adetunji Oyeyipo, who represented the petitioners (People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Mr Asue Ighodalo, said he was not surprised by the action of the electoral umpire and, as such, would not be objecting to the closure of the case without calling witnesses as earlier promised.

Okpebholo’s lawyers and the APC did not also object to the closure of the 1st Respondent’s case.

Chairman of the three-member election tribunal, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, in a short ruling, held that “the request is granted and the 1st Respondent’s case is hereby closed.”

Meanwhile, the 2nd Respondent’s (Okpebholo) lawyer, Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu, prayed the court for a date in the coming week to enable him to open his defence, because he never envisaged that the 1st Respondent would close its case yesterday.