Edo: Election tribunal scolds PDP over failure to produce witnesses

The Edo Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal on Tuesday in Abuja, berated the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, over their failure to produce witnesses in court.

PDP and Asue were to produce witnesses to testify in the petition they filed seeking the nullification of the governorship election which took place in the state on Sept. 21, 2024.

The tribunal had its first sitting in Abuja following it’s relocation to the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that a statement issued by the Secretary of the Tribunal, Mr. Mu’azu Bagudu announced the tribunal ‘s relocation to Abuja.

Although no reason was expressly stated for the move,however, political experts opined that the move may not be far from the rising issue of insecurity and purported fears of plots to burn down the building housing the tribunal.

Listed as respondents in the suit are the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Gov. Monday Okpebholo and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).

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At the resumed sitting in the matter, counsel to the PDP and Ighodalo, Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, called their witness, Mr. Oseyili Anenih for cross examination.

NAN also recalls that Anenih had given his evidence-in-chief as PW-12 while the tribunal was sitting in Benin.

After Anenih was cross examined by all the respondents and was discharged, the senior lawyer told the tribunal that most of their other witnesses had suffered travel disruptions.

“My lords, this is the reason we are unable to present them today. We urge your Lordships to give us another date.

“We undertake that on the next date, we will bring as many witnesses as may be convenient for the tribunal.

“We will also work assiduously to prime down our witnesses,”Oyeyipo prayed the tribunal.”

Miffed by the development, the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member tribunal berated the petitioners for wasting the judicial time of the tribunal.

Kpochi said that the tribunal had earlier asked other parties that also lodged petitions challenging the outcome of the governorship election to take new dates so that Tuesday could be dedicated to hearing the PDP’s petition.

“What you are just telling us is not good at all! Why then did we ask the other petitioners to take dates? We should have heard them today.

“In fact, call those your witnesses, tell them to come, we are ready for them to come today,” Justice Kpochi said.

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The counsel, however, pleaded that the witnesses may not be in the right frame of mind to mount the dock after their travel experiences.

The tribunal subsequently adjourned the matter until Thursday.

Earlier, Anenih told the tribunal that though there were a total of 4,519 polling units in Edo , the PDP and its candidate were challenging the results of 765 polling units.

Anenih, who told the tribunal that he served as the Director of Research and Strategy for the PDP, during the election admitted that he did not visit all the polling units during the election.

He told the tribunal that most of the results given to local government collation agents did not reach the state collation agents but ended up in the PDP situation room because the agents were prevented from transmitting them to the state collation centres.

The witness maintained that if the lawful votes that were cast on the election day were sincerely collated, his candidate, Ighodalo, would have emerged victorious having polled the highest number of valid votes.

Answering questions from Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, counsel to Gov. Okpebholo, the witness admitted that they did not have any physical access to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, Machines, that were used for the election.

He, however said that they were able to get some screenshots of it, which they tendered in evidence.

He said they had since subpoenaed INEC to make the machines available before the tribunal.

While being cross-examined by counsel to the APC, Mr Emmanuel Ukala, the witness confirmed that he was not trained by INEC to play any role during the election.

He further admitted that none of the polling unit results was handed over to him personally by agents of the party.

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When he was handed one of the Exhibits to look at, the witness confirmed to the tribunal that out of 16 copies of the results in the bundle, only three of them were stamped.

“To us, that three that were stamped is significant enough. It represents almost 20 per cent ,” the witness insisted.

NAN recalls that the PDP and its candidate had approached the tribunal praying it to nullify the outcome of the governorship election.

They based their petition on the grounds of alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act and other malpractices.

They insisted that Gov. Okpebholo of the APC did not secure the highest number of majority of the valid votes cast at the election to be declared winner.