Kaduna tribunal: PDP witnesses, evidence shows I won, says Uba Sani

Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has said in a final address to the State Governorship Tribunal that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) unwittingly helped in proving he won the March 18 governorship election, in the course of challenging his victory.

He asserted this in the address prepared by his legal team led by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN.

The opposition party had challenged the declaration of Sani as the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru Isa, seeking a reversal of the pronouncement.

In the sole pending petition against Uba’s victory, 24 witnesses were called by the petitioners. Claims and documents were also adduced by them.

Today, Monday, September 4, parties in the petition will be adopting their final written addresses even as a confident Governor Sani decided to head into the final lap without his listed witnesses, earlier scheduled to defend his mandate.

According to the governor, the petitioners had helped in proving he won the poll fair and square, pointing in particular to the admission of a star witness for the petitioner, Bonett Gwazah, a senior system analyst (SSA) in the VR/ICT Department of INEC in Kaduna State.

The governor through his counsel said, “The petitioners called a total of 24 witnesses, most of whose statements on oath were filed pursuant to subpoenas issued during the hearing of the petition.

“After the close of the petitioners case, the 2nd Respondent (the governor) did not see any need to call witnesses having elicited sufficient evidence under cross-examination to discredit the petitioners who failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law, and the evidence so elicited supports the defence pleaded by the 2nd Respondent”.

While inviting the Tribunal to take judicial notice of how the petitioners’ witnesses crumbled under cross examination, Governor Sani’s legal team, pointed out how fatal Gwazah’s capitulation under cross examination is, to the case of PDP and Isa who requested him as their star witness.

Chief Ojo, on behalf of his client, pointed out that, “This witness (Gwazah) tendered several INEC Forms, Voters’ Regosters, BVAS Reporte, PVCs collected in 9 Local Government Areas.”