The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday tendered five additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices used for the last governorship election in Edo State before the state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja.The devices were tendered by a Senior Technical Officer in the ICT Department in INEC, Anthony Itodo, following which the tribunal admitted in evidence, even though all the respondents objected, promising to adduce reasons in their final written addresses......CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Following a subpoena by the petitioners – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo – INEC, last week, brought 148 BVAS used in 133 polling units where results of the election are being disputed by the petitioners, who are alleging over voting.
The petitioners subsequently announced the conclusion of the presentation of their case shortly after calling a total of 19 witnesses whose testimonies centred mainly on alleged irregularities, especially during the collation of votes at both the ward and local government levels.The petitioners’ lawyer, Robert Emukpoeruo (SAN) announced the closure of his client’s case on Monday shortly
INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closet rivalry, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247, 655 votes.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, the PDP and Ighodalo filed their petition before the tribunal, praying it to, among others, nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Okpebholo as winners.The petitioners anchored their claim against the outcome of the election on the alleged wrongful computation of results during collation at the ward and local government levels.They are among others, contending that the election was invalid because of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
They also claimed, in the petition marked: EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 that Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.Meanwhile, the three-member tribunal, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, has adjourned till Wednesday, February 5 for INEC to open its defence.Speaking after Monday’s proceedings, Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Anthony Aziegbemin was optimistic about a positive outcome, noting that the petitioners, through their lawyers, have done justice to the case.
Aziegbemin said: “We think the case is pretty straightforward, we think it is documentary based, we think it is specific, we think the judiciary will give it some judicial cognisance of what we tendered before them.“We believe that they have all they need from us and all that we should produce, I think we have given it to them. And we expect them to look at them and see how it goes.“But suffices to say that it is not a petition as we used to have it in the country, where you call a lot of witnesses.
“We didn’t need to call a lot of witnesses. We called the witnesses that we needed to prove our case and make our case more solid”, he said.Aziegbemin said he was surprised that INEC objected to the admissibility of its own documents, adding that it “gives us and Nigerians something to think about. Why will INEC oppose the documents it certified to the petitioners to be tendered in the open court?“I think the tribunal will look into that and see why they are objecting, though they said they will give reasons at the address stage but it is strange. It doesn’t add up,” the Edo PDP Chair said.