Edo governorship tribunal scolds PDP

The Edo Governorship 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.

The PDP and Mr 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 21 September 2024.

The tribunal had its first sitting in Abuja following its 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, Mu’azu Bagudu announced the tribunal’s relocation to Abuja.

Although no reason was given for the relocation, the tribunal acted, according to some people, because of security concerns.

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

Governor Monday Okpebholo (PHOTO CREDIT: @Gov_Okpebholo)

What transpired at the tribunal

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

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

After Mr Anenih was cross examined by all the respondents and was discharged, Mr Oyeyipo 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,” Mr Oyeyipo prayed the tribunal.

Miffed by this development, the three-member panel, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, berated the petitioners for “wasting the tribunal’s time.”

Justice Kpochi said the tribunal had 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.

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.

Previous cross-examination

Earlier, Mr 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.

Mr 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.

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.

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The witness maintained that if the lawful votes cast on Election Day had been sincerely counted, his candidate, Mr Ighodalo, would have emerged victorious, “having polled the highest number of valid votes”.

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

However, he said they were able to obtain some screenshots of it, which they tendered as evidence.

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

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

He further admitted that party agents did not personally hand over any of the polling unit results to him.

When he was handed one exhibit to examine, the witness confirmed to the tribunal that only three of the 16 copies of the results in the bundle were stamped.

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

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 Mr Okpebholo of the APC did not secure the majority of the valid votes cast at the election to be declared winner.