14th September, 2015
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the second respondent at the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Monday, closed its defence after failing to impress by not calling 19 witnesses listed in its defence.
The PDP which had listed 23 persons as witnesses only called four.
It would be recalled that the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the election, Umana Okon Umana, had approached the tribunal to challenge conduct of the election and declaration of Udom Emmanuel as winner of the poll.
When the case came up on Monday, lawyer to the PDP, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo, informed the tribunal that a representative of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State by name Obinna Ayogu, who had on Friday failed to produce the remaining one bag of Incident Forms allegedly used during the election, was in court.
When called upon, Mr. Obinna Agogu, told the tribunal that he later realised that the bag was for Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and not for Ini LGA as earlier said on September 10, 2015. After him, counsel to the PDP, Tayo Oyetibo, informed the tribunal that they have closed their defence.
A member of the three man panel of judges hearing the petition reminded Mr. Oyetibo that the Incident Forms which the representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) brought to the tribunal, following a subpoena the PDP caused to be issued on the Akwa Ibom REC, was not before them because same has neither been tendered nor admitted.
Mr. Oyetibo agreed that the Incident Forms have not been admitted in evidence. He submitted that they will decide on what to do with the Incident Forms subsequently.
On his part, Counsel to INEC, Mr. Tobechukwu Nweke, informed the tribunal that the commission will not be able to open their defence until Tuesday because the Electoral Officers (EOs) that they intend to call as witnesses are not available. He stated that the EOs are on their way to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He then applied that the case be adjourned to Tuesday.
Responding, Mr. Solomon Umoh, SAN, counsel to the petitioners, Umana and APC, said that although he was not opposing the application for adjournment, it had expected INEC to open their defence Monday, since all the respondents are working together, which implies that counsel to INEC ought to have known before hand that the PDP will not present more witnesses.
Mr. Dayo Akinlaja, SAN a member of the petitioners team who later addressed the media said it was interesting that the second respondents were only able to present just four witnesses in addition to the 19 witnesses earlier called by the 1st respondents.
According to him, the two respondents only called 23 witnesses in all as opposed to the 52 witnesses listed.
He expressed confidence that the truth about what took place in Akwa Ibom State on April 11, 2015 will prevail and that justice will be done at the end of the day.
The case was adjourned till Tuesday, September 15.