Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal yesterday resumed hearing in the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, challenging the return of Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner of last year’s governorship poll.
The tribunal was relocated from Benin City to Abuja, few days ago as tension continued to rise between supporters of the governor and the PDP.
The relocation, however, affected the day’s proceedings as the petitioners could not call most of their scheduled witnesses due to fatigue.
According to the lead counsel of the petitioners, Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, most of their proposed witnesses, “suffered travel disruptions.”
Meanwhile, continuing his evidence, the 12th witness of the petitioners (PW12), Mr. Oseyili Anenih, alleged widespread irregularities in 765 polling units during the September 21, 2024 governorship election poll won by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Anenih, there were discrepancies in the Certified True Copies (CTC) of results and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) accreditation reports obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) IREV portal.
However, under cross-examination, the witness, who told the tribunal that he served as the Director of Research and Strategy for the PDP, admitted that he could not visit all the polling units during the election.
Anenih also noted that most of the evidence the petitioners’ relied on were based on reports that were submitted by agents and experts.
He further told the tribunal that most copies of the results that agents of the party made available to him at the Situation Room were not signed.
The witness, however, maintained that if lawful votes that were cast at the election were sincerely collated, his candidate, Ighodalo, would have emerged victorious.
When cross examined by the governor’s lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, the witness admitted that though they did not have any physical access to the BVAS Machines that were used for the election, they however got some screenshots of it, which they tendered in evidence.
Anenih explained that they had since subpoenaed INEC, to make the machines available before the tribunal.
Under cross examination by counsel to the All Progressives Congress (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.
However, while answering another question, he said: “Some of the local government collation agents brought their results straight to me because they were not allowed access to the State Collation Centre.
“Some copies of election results in the Form EC8A that were handed to the agents were not legible.
“It is,however, not correct that majority of the results that were brought by our agents were not stamped by INEC, though some of them were not,” he said.
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 was significant enough. It represents almost 20 per cent ,” the witness insisted.
At the end of his testimony, the witness was then discharged from the witness box.
Petitioners’ lawyer subsequently sought for a short adjournment to enable them call other witnesses.
“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, SAN, pleaded with the tribunal.
Although, chairman of the three-member panel, Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led expressed disappointment that the proceedings is being called off after the taking of just one witness, he, however, granted the request and fixed January 30 for the petitioners to call additional witnesses in support of their case.
