The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, have come under fire from the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for failing to provide witnesses to testify in their petition to overturn the results of the state’s September 21, 2024, gubernatorial election.
Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, the PDP and Ighodalo’s attorney, informed the tribunal during Tuesday’s resumed sessions that the majority of the witnesses who had offered to testify in the case “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, SAN, pleaded shortly after the witness that was testifying before the tribunal relocated its sitting from Edo state to Abuja, was discharged.
The three-member tribunal, presided over by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, expressed dissatisfaction with the development and charged the petitioners with squandering the tribunal’s time.
The tribunal claims that it had previously requested new dates from other parties who had also filed applications to contest the results of the governorship election.
“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,” Justice Kpochi became furious.
“In fact, call those your witnesses. Tell them to come, we are ready for them to come today.”
The petitioners’ attorney, however, argued that the witnesses might not be in the proper state of mind to testify after their travel issues.
“I appeal that we should be given a new date, counsel for the petitioners begged. The case was then postponed until Thursday by the tribunal.
Mr. Oseyili Anenih, the witness who was released, informed the tribunal that the PDP and its candidate are contesting the results from roughly 765 polling places in Edo state, despite the fact that there were 4,519 polling places in total.
In response to cross-examination questions, Mr. Anenih, who informed the tribunal that he was the PDP’s Director of Research and Strategy, acknowledged that he was unable to visit every polling station during the election.
He informed the tribunal that reports provided by agents and specialists constituted the majority of the evidence the petitioners used.
Additionally, he informed the tribunal that the majority of the findings that were sent to him by the party’s operatives in the Situation Room were not signed.
But according to Anenih, his candidate, Ighodalo, would have won if the legitimate votes cast during the election had been honestly counted.
The witness acknowledged that they did not physically inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVAS, machines that were used for the election, but they did obtain some screenshots of them, which they presented as proof in response to questions from Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, who was representing Governor Monday Okpebholo.
In order to provide the machines to the tribunal, he added, they have since subpoenaed the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC.
The PW-12, the key witness in the case, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, SAN, on cross-examination by the All Progressives Congress, APC, acknowledged that INEC had not prepared him to participate in the election in any way.
In response to another query, he stated:“Some of the local government collation agents brought their results straight to me because they were not allowed access to the State Collation Center.
“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.”
The witness acknowledged to the tribunal that only three of the sixteen copies of the results in the bundle were stamped when he was given one of the exhibits to examine.
“To us, that three that were stamped was significant enough. It represents almost 20% ,” the witness stated.
Recall that the PDP and its candidate petitioned the tribunal to declare the results of the governorship election void due to purported violations of the Electoral Act.
They also argued that APC Governor Okpebholo did not receive the most majority votes during the election.