Akwa Ibom Guber: INEC Fails to Testify as PDP Closes Case Abruptly

Mr. Solomon Umoh, SAN, counsel to the petitioners at the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Mr. Umana Okon Umana and the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday mocked the failure of INEC, subpoenaed at the instance of the PDP, to open their defence. Counsel to INEC, Mr. Tobechukwu Nweke, had informed the tribunal that the commission would not be able to open their defence until Tuesday when the Electoral Officers (EOs) that they intended to call as witnesses would be available. He stated that the EOs were on their way to Abuja, and then applied for the case to be adjourned to Tuesday. Umoh said that although he was not opposed to the application for adjournment, he had expected INEC to open their defence Monday, since all the respondents are working together, which implies that counsel to the electoral body ought to have known beforehand that the PDP would not present more witnesses. The case has been adjourned to Tuesday, September 15. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the second respondent, had closed its defence abruptly after failing to call more witnesses at two previous sittings. The PDP which had listed 23 persons as witnesses only called four. The All Progressive Congress candidate for the election, Umana Umana, had approached the tribunal to challenge the conduct of the election and the 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, Obinna Ayogu, who had on Friday failed to produce the remaining 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 one remaining bag was for Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and not for Ini LGA as he had 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 had caused to be issued on the Akwa Ibom REC was not before them because it had neither been tendered nor admitted. 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. Mr. Dayo Akinlaja, SAN, a member of the petitioners’ team, who later addressed the media, noted that it was interesting that the PDP was only able to present four witnesses in addition to the 19 witnesses earlier called by the 1st respondents. This, according to him, means that 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.