Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State yesterday lost his bid to stop the witnesses of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Chief Umana Umana from testifing against him before the Akwa Ibom Governorship Petition Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The tribunal dismissed the request by the governor that all the APC witnesses be disqualified from testifying against him on the grounds that they used their initials instead of their full names in the statements on oath.
The statements are to be used in support of the petition challenging his election as governor.
Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Sadiq Umar, while giving ruling on the request by the governor and said the request was strange and could not be supported by any law.
Justice Umar agreed with the submission of Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel to the petitioner that the witnesses have the right under the law to use their initials or acronym on their statements on oath.
The tribunal held that the Practice Direction formulated by the Court of Appeal, and guiding the procedures of the election petition tribunals clearly allowed the use of initials or acronym in place of the names of the witnesses so as to protect the witnesses from intimidation and harassment by the opposition.
Counsel to the governor, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN) and Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) for the PDP, had separately raised objections to the statements on oath made by all the APC witnesses on the grounds that their real names were not on the statements but initials and acronyms.
Oyetibo specifically objected to the calling of any witness to adopt statement in oath because according to him there was no nexus between the statement and the witnesses.
He submitted that the mere use of the initials or acronym should not be allowed by the tribunal to confer the originator on the witnesses since their real names were not printed on the statements.
The counsel also argued that his client would be denied fair hearing, if ghost witnesses whose names are not on the statements on oath were allowed to testify before the tribunal against his client.
However, the chairman overruled the objection for being misplaced adding that the law and the practice direction are so clear and not ambiguous that witnesses in an election petition can use initials or acronym to safeguard themselves from being attacked, molested or intimidated by the opposing party in an election petition.
After the ruling, Olanipekun complained of attempt by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to frustrate his case by preventing his men from inspecting the election materials use for the disputed poll.
The chairman in response directed INEC to comply with the earlier order of the tribunal to allow the inspection of the ballot papers and order materials used for the election.
APC candidate in the election Umana had petitioned the election of Governor Emmanuel Udoh on account of irregularities and malpractices and prayed the tribunal to annul the election and order a fresh one.
Further hearing continues today.
Meanwhile, the Yobe State Governorship Tribunal, on Tuesday in Abuja, commenced hearing in the petition filed by the PDP and its candidate in the last governorship election, Adamu Waziri.
Waziri and his party are challenging the victory of the governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, of the APC before the tribunal sitting in Abuja.
Petitioners’ lawyer, Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), tendered some documents used for the election.
They included EC8A Forms (results sheets at Unit level), EC8B Forms (result sheets at wards level), EC8C Forms (result sheets at Local Government level), EC8D Form (containing summary of results from all the state’s 17 local governments and EC8E Form (containing summary of election results in the state).
The lawyer also tendered about 204,900 Incident Forms used for the election in place of card reader machines specified in the Electoral Guideline made for the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, Akintola could only tender the Incident Forms from used in 14 out of the 15 local government in which the election was conducted.
He left out the forms from Geidam Local Government, which he promised to tender on the next date.
Tribunal Chairman, Justice Mojisola Dada, while noting that the petitioners have utilised one out of the 14 days allocated to them to prosecute their case, adjourned to July 30.
Most part of the tribunal’s time was wasted yesterday by the petitioners, whose lawyers spent most time sorting out the various cartons of documents brought to be tendered.
As a result of this, the tribunal, which commenced sitting at 9a.m, was compelled to suspend proceedings about 30 mnutes later for hours to enable petitioners’ lawyers sort out their documents. It was only able to resume business by 1.40p.m.
The petitioners are challenging the results declared for the 15 local government areas on among other grounds, failure of the INEC to conduct the election using card reader machines as stipulated in the electoral guidelines and re-affirmed in press statements by the national office of INEC.
They are challenging the election in 15 of the state’s 17 local government, except in Potiskum and Faki Local Government Areas,
The rest of the Local Governments are Tarmuwa, Jakusko, Machina, Yunusari, Barde, Bursari, Damaturu, Fune, Geidam, Gujba, Gulani, Nangere, Nguru and Yunusari.
Tags: Featuered, Nigeria, Politics, Governor Udom Emmanuel
Source: Thisday
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