• Tribunal adjourns till Feb. 5 for INEC to open defence
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, have closed their case against the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
The petitioners closed their case yesterday, shortly after calling 19 witnesses who testified of alleged irregularities, especially during the collation of votes at the ward and local council levels.
The move to close their case was sequel to the tendering of five additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines that were used for the election.
The electronic devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Anthony Itodo.
Recall that following a subpoena order of the three-member panel led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, INEC had, last week, tendered 148 BVAS machines used in 133 polling units in the September 21 governorship election.
The petitioners had anchored their claim against the outcome of the election on the alleged wrongful computation of results during collation at the ward and local council levels.
After taking five witnesses last Friday, the tribunal adjourned till Monday to enable the petitioners continues their case challenging the declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC’s) candidate, Monday Okpebholo, as governor.
However, at the resumed hearing at the tribunal currently sitting in Abuja, the petitioners expressed satisfaction that they have established their case against the respondents, going by the testimonies of their witnesses and the plethora of documentary evidence brought before the three-member panel of justices.
Lead counsel to the petitioners, Mr Robert Emukpoeruo, informed the tribunal that they would be closing their case against the respondents. Although, INEC, Okpebholo and the APC opposed the admissibility of the five BVAS machines, the tribunal however accepted them pending its ruling on their relevance to the case.
Meanwhile, the tribunal has fixed Wednesday, February 5, for INEC to open its defence.
