Obiano’s ward results still missing Exactly one week after the Gubernatorial Elections Petition Tribunal commenced the admission of certified documents as exhibits from Senator Chris Ngige and the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the second of the four petitions before it, the tribunal yesterday concluded the exercise with over 10,000 exhibits admitted so far. A total of 5,984 election-related documents were admitted yesterday and marked as evidence, bringing the total so far admitted from the petitioners to 10,234 with more expected. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legal team represented today by Clement Ezira, prayed the tribunal to adopt and rely on the exhibits tendered by Ngige and APC. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the tribunal had granted the prayers in the absence of any objection. Documentary exhibits admitted yesterday include voter registers and polling booth results for the eight local government areas of the state outstanding as at yesterday. They are Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Ogbaru, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Orumba North, Orumba South and Oyi local government areas. Other documents included the summary of the polling booth results at Ward level ( Forms EC8B) cutting across all the 326 wards in the state except, Ward 10, Ogbaru; Summary of local government results at state level (Form EC8D); form for declaration of results (Form EC8E) and 355 forms for Oath of Neutrality by INEC staff handling the elections. All summaries of the ward results at the local government level (Forms EC8E) was initially not available as at the time other certified documents were supplied by INEC in the exhibits, but was later supplied. However, Polling Booth Results for the entire Otuocha Ward I, Anambra East LGA of the state is still missing from the pack as petitioners said it was not supplied by INEC. Chief Willie Obiano, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate who was declared winner of the elections by the electoral umpire hails from this ward. The lead counsel for Ngige and APC, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), also tendered for admission, a 356-page document enlisting all INEC ad hoc staff that worked in the 16th, 17th and 30th November 2013 disputed gubernatorial elections. Also tendered were, 813 ‘Forms EC 40A’ described as Ballot Paper Verification Statement, 116 certified copies of ‘Forms EC 40 B’, described as Statement of Invalid Ballot Papers; as well as 152 certified of ‘Forms EC 40 C’, described as statement of unused ballot papers. All EC40A, EC40B and EC40C documents, according to Akeredolu cut across the 21 LGAs. The tribunal also admitted in evidence, 443 exhibits made up of Forms ‘EC25 A’ described receipt of electoral materials and 26 copies of Forms EC25 B described as the ‘Receipt for Electoral Materials by presiding officers in the 21 LGAs’ Eight certified copies of newspaper reports on the election became a bone of contention between the lawyers on the respective sides of the consolidated matter before Chairman of the tribunal, Hon. Justice Ishaq Bello, ruled in favour of the admission. At issue in an objection first raised by Ken Mozie, holding Obiano’s counsel brief and supported by Osita Nnadi, SAN for APGA was that agreements between the counsel covered only documents obtained from INEC without objection. In his response however, Akeredolu relied on the report of the pre-trial session handed down by the tribunal which stated according to him, that ‘All certified documents shall be tendered from the Bar, while all other documents shall go through the normal process of tendering’ Bello ruled that the ‘the certified documents, as used in the agreement reached in the Bar and the report of the tribunal was generic in application and therefore the documents should be admitted without prejudice to any objections that may be raised by parties on it in future’ Hence, the newspaper reports were admitted and marked as Exhibits ‘P.349A-H.’ Hearing has been adjourned till March 25, being the 100th day in the 180-day lifespan of the Ngige-APC Petition and the 99th day of the PDP and Tony Nwoye’s petitions. Meanwhile, the tribunal has fixed the case of Dr. Chike Obidigbo and APGA versus Obiano, INEC and others for hearing today.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 07:20:01 +0000
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