Edeoga Presents INEC, Others As Labour Party Witnesses Before Enugu Tribunal

Hearing continued on Tuesday evening in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga against the election of Barr Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the March 18 governorship election in the state.

At the resumption of proceedings, Edeoga presented a member of the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Friday Emmanuel, as a subpoenaed witness.

Emmanuel, works at the legal drafting and clearance department, INEC headquarters, Abuja.

Before the INEC staff proceeded to give his evidence, legal fireworks ensued between Edeoga and the respondents(INEC, Peter Mbah and PDP).

Edeoga’s counsels were led by V Azinge, SAN, while PDP’s legal team was led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN.

Mbah’s legal team was led by Alex Iziyon, SAN, while Humphrey Okoli represented the INEC.

Two of the respondents, Mbah and the PDP objected to INEC’s evidence on the grounds that a witness must first swear to a witness deposition on oath.

They cited several authorities to back up their argument.

However, the petitioners’ counsel, led by Azinge equally cited plethora of cases which they said justified the evidence of the subpoenaed witness.

The tribunal then held that a ruling on the objections raised by the respondents would be considered alongside the judgement.

The INEC staff then produced to the tribunal, Mbah’s certificates which he submitted alongside his governorship nomination form.

After tendering his subpoena, Emmanuel then told the tribunal: “the documents with me is Form EC9 and all the attachments, for the PDP governorship candidate, Enugu State.”

The LP counsel applied to tender the documents as exhibits.

Both the PDP and Mbah objected to the admissibility of the documents. They, however, reserved their objections for the written address.

The INEC counsel did not object to the tendering of the documents.

The certificates Mbah submitted to the INEC were then admitted in evidence by the Tribunal.

Meanwhile, during cross examination of the witness, PDP’s counsel, Iziyon, asked the INEC witness to identify a membership register of the LP submitted to the commission before the election.

Emmanuel identified that the document was certified by the commission. Iziyon sought to tender it as exhibit.

The LP counsel told the tribunal that he would raise his objections during final address.

It was then admitted by the tribunal as evidence.

Also, the BVAS report presented by Edeoga for the Governorship Election was also admitted in evidence by the tribunal.

Apart from the INEC subpoenaed witness, five others also testified on behalf of the LP in the petition.

The witnesses, who said they are all party agents included Ezeme Ifesinachi (PW4) from Obollo-Etiti in Udenu LGA, Lt. Colonel Ugwu Chizoba, Rtd. (PW5), from Obollo-Etiti, Joseph Ada, (PW6) and Jonas Okwor from the same LGA.

The witnesses are alleging irregularities in the result announced by the INEC for Udenu LGA.

As of the time of filing this report, witnesses were still being cross-examined by lawyers from both sides.

– The Guardian