Anambra Guber Tribunal: Proceeding held up as Ngige’s lawyers protest mix-up in records By Ada Bosa Emotions rose , and the tension stood high for nearly thirty minutes before a hurried adjournment till Wednesday March 27,2014, in Anambra State High Court Room 1, venue of the Anambra State Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal in Awka as Lead Counsel to the Senator Chris Ngige and All Progressive Congress (APC) vehemently protested what he called a mix-up in the court records by the Chairmen of the three-man Tribunal to rule on an objection to the re-examination of the Petitioner’s witness. Trouble began when the second witness Mr Orji John Onyekwelu (PW2) under cross examination was asked if he withheld his VIN Number from the Presiding Officer at his Polling Booth in Community Primary School Umueje, Ayamelum Local Government Area by Counsel for the 3rd Respondent (Obiano), Onyebuchi Ikpeazu,SAN. In response the witness whose tag as Ward Collation agent was and Voter Registration Card were admitted in evidence as P.366 and P.367 respectively, yet did not find his name in the register used on 16th November Elections re-echoed his evidence in chief: ‘I withheld it for security reasons because I know that I would be appearing here (In tribunal) to give evidence.’ Akeredolu under e-examination submitted that their was ambiguity which needed to be cleared by the witness. The ambiguity, according to Akeredolu lies in ‘at what point the witness withheld his VIN number. But Ikpeazu objected along with Counsel for the 4th Respondent (APGA). They insisted that the question is clear. After the exchange of legal arguments, the Tribunal took 15 minutes off to write its ruling. But at the point of reading the ruling the Chairman of the Tribunal instead read out portions of his court records which appeared unrelated to PW2,BUT RAHTER TO PW1 ruling that ‘there was no ambiguity’. ‘Counsel for 3rd Respondent asked the witness to identify the column of APC aagents in the exhibit he presented ad to shown him and show him the column marked for APC and its agent to sign…’ Hon Justice Ishaq Bello read out. ‘At this point Akeredolu protested, insisting that tPW2 was never given any exhibit to identify a column for agent’s signature in the course of his testimony. ‘ Hot exchanges arising from this held u proceedings for about 30 minutes leading to an initial adjournment till Thursday March 28, 2014. However based on an application by Akeredolu, the court adjourned the matter till Afternoon session of Wednesday March 27, 2014 for continuation of hearing. Earlier in the proceeding PW2 that he went to thee centre of registration at CPS Umueje to check his name and found his name, but when he returned to vote on 16th November his name was missing. Asked by Osita Nnadi, SAN why he did not go to INEC Headquarters in Awka or at is local Government Area to complain, PW2 said:’ Only those who did not find their names in the register need to go to INEC office to complain. In my own case, I went, to check the voter register displayed on the notice board in my centre at CPS Umueje and found my name, so I went home and relaxed.’ In his earlier testimony Hon Emma Uche Uzowulu (PW1) who hails from Obosi in Idemili North LGA, represented a letter of protest which he wrote on behalf of his party (APC) as Ward Collation Agent for Obosi and submitted to Presiding Officers in the 65-unit Ward, protesting the deferment of elections to Sunday in a predominantly Christian town. However Counsel to INEC Mr. Ayo Ogunleye told the Tribunal that there was no acknowledgement from INEC on the face of the document, and therefore, the document ought not to be accepted. Hs position was backed by Nnadi. The Tribunal gave an order to mark thee document as P.364 REJECTED) Asked to explain the contest in which he used the word ‘predominantly’ in his evidence in chief, PW1 whose agency tag was admitted in evidence and marked P.365, said he had confronted the INEC commissioner, Nuhu Yakub, if he would ‘fix an election in Kano on a Friday where the population is predominantly Muslim’, to protest the idea of holding elections in Obosi on 17th November 2014. Asked by Ogunleye if he voted on 17th November 2014, he said,: ‘Me? Vote on Sunday? I did not, it is against our religion’. Only two witnesses, out of the 19 listed yesterday testified.PW1 testified before break period which lasted from 2.pm to 3.56pm and the other from 4.03pm to 5.01pm when the protested ruling was concluded by the Tribunal. Ngige/APC have over 50 witnesses in evidence, according to Akeredolu ,who requested the Tribunal to review the time allotted to cross examination down from 20 minutes each as it makes ‘each witness take one hour and at this rate we would not be able to get far’.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 23:05:17 +0000
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