Edo Guber Tribunal: PDP witnesses testify on alleged over-voting

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Friday continued hearing the petition filed by Dr. Asue Ighodalo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the outcome of the September 2024 Edo governorship election.

Listed as defendants in the petition marked EPT/ED/Gov/02/2024 are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Monday Okpebholo, and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

The tribunal, chaired by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, in Abuja, on Friday took testimony from five witnesses who alleged discrepancies and over-voting in some polling units.

Led in evidence by the petitioners’ counsel, Rotimi Ogunesan (SAN), Haruna Ibrahim, a 34-year-old businessman from Sabo Quarter, Auchi, testified that he was an accredited voter during the election.

He confirmed signing his witness statement and urged the tribunal to adopt it as evidence.

Ibrahim identified key electoral documents, including screenshots of polling unit results, BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) reports, and Form EC8B for Ward 8.

While the defendant’s counsel objected to the admissibility of some documents, the tribunal admitted them but reserved its ruling on their final admissibility.

Under cross-examination, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kanu Agabi (SAN), questioned Ibrahim’s role in the election process. When asked if he signed Form EC8A, the primary result sheet, Ibrahim said he did so only to obtain a copy for his party.

Agabi pressed further, asking if the word “BVAS” appeared on the document or if Ibrahim made entries into the BVAS machine, to which he replied negatively.

He also admitted not submitting any formal protest regarding irregularities.

Counsel to Governor Okpebholo, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), questioned the reliability of the petitioner’s claim of over-voting. He asked Ibrahim to examine the ward collation result, specifically column 7, where the witness insisted that over-voting had occurred.

However, Ikpeazu pointed out that the reconciled results did not indicate over-voting.

Another witness, Okuo Taiye Esther, a farmer from Igara, Akoko-Edo, also testified, urging the court to adopt her written statement. Some defense counsel opposed correcting parts of her statement, but the tribunal reserved its ruling.

Esther confirmed submitting extracts from the BVAS machine as evidence. However, Agabi (SAN) challenged her connection to the documents, noting that her name and signature did not appear on them. When asked why she did not sign Form EC8A, she claimed she refused due to over-voting.

During cross-examination, Ikpeazu (SAN) asked her to verify the total number of votes from her polling unit.

She insisted that the figures on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) were incorrect, arguing that the valid votes should have totalled 229, not 228. She also claimed that spoiled ballots were not counted.

Defense counsel questioned whether Esther had verified Form EC8B (the ward result) before alleging over-voting.

She maintained that over-voting had occurred but admitted she could not confirm whether the ward collation figures matched polling unit records.

As the proceedings continued, the tribunal admitted several documents as exhibits but reserved judgment on objections raised by the defense regarding their admissibility.

Another witness, Asuluka Righteousness, a motorcyclist from Okoko Edo Unwa community, led in evidence by the petitioner’s counsel, confirmed he was not the maker of the documents presented in court.

Under cross-examination by Agabi, counsel for the first respondent, he admitted that he had seen the contents of the documents before and after the election.

“We signed the results to collect duplicates,” Righteousness stated.

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When asked if he had protested any irregularities, he responded that he had complained to his ward agent and handed over the results sheet to him.

Murtairu Yusuf, an Agbede farmer and politician, was also among the witnesses who testified on Friday.

The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.

They equally argued in the petition marked EPT/ED/Gov/02/2024 that Governor Okpebholo of the APC did not secure the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election.