OMISORE CALLS FIRST WITNESS, TENDERS POLL RESULTS AT TRIBUNAL - Punch newspaper The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Monday started calling his witnesses to prove to the Election Petitions Tribunal hearing his petition against Governor Rauf Aregbesola that the August 9th election was rigged. The petitioner’s counsel, Chief Chris Uche ( SAN) called the secretary of the PDP in Osun State, Mr. Bola Ajao, as the Petitioner Witness 1. The witness also tendered series of forms EC8A which he said he collected from polling agents of the party from the disputed units on the election day. The duplicate copies of the election results were also tendered by the witness. The PW 1 also tendered duplicate copies of forms EC8 B, forms EC8 C and forms EC8D which are results from the wards, local government areas and the collation of the final result respectively. Although the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime, admitted the documents, she said the panel would rule on their admissibility in the final judgment. Ikpejime said, ” We reserve ruling on the admissibility of the documents till the judgment stage. However, without prejudice, the documents are admitted as evidence.” Counsel to the first respondent, ( Aregbesola), Mr. Segun Ajibola (SAN) had raised an objection to the admissibility of the documents tendered by the witness. The first respondent argued that the duplicate copies of the election results were not certified true copies and that they were not authored by the witness who sought to tender them. He urged the tribunal to reject the documents. Counsel for the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro ( SAN), who also raised an objection to the admissibility of the documents argued that the duplicate copies of the documents the petitioner sought to tender were not mentioned nor listed in the witness statement deposed to by the PW1. He urged the tribunal to reject the polling results, saying ” the documents are aliens to the witness’ deposition. He said, ” I urge your lordships to mark the documents as tendered but rejected.” The counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr. Ayotunde Ogunleye, also adopted the arguments of the first and second respondent and urged the tribunal to reject the documents. He observed that some of the documents were mutilated while some were blank and other inelligible. Uche told the panel that he had filed a motion seeking to call additional witnesses and urged the tribunal to curtail the seven days which the respondent had to respond to it. The respondents objected the application but eventually accepted to abridge the time they needed to reply after the pleading from the panel in order to save time. The respondents conceded and agreed to filed their reply to the motion within four days. The petitioner’s counsel had earlier accused the INEC of delaying the inspection and scanning of election materials used for the governorship election. Uche said, “My lords, we are still having problem with the third respondent in respect of inspection of materials at its custody. We are still having up to five local government areas which we have not be able to do. The excuses range from break down of photocopy machines to faulty scanning machines and so on. My learners brother, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), had earlier brought a motion on his but he had to withdraw it because assurances were given that the third respondent would cooperate with us.” Uche had immediately after resumption of hearing on Monday completed tendering of forms EC25 B ( election materials received) which the petitioner started tendering on Thursday when the tribunal sat last on the case. He also tendered certified true copy of Manual for Election Officials 2014 issued by the INEC. Also, the petitioner’s counsel tendered certified true copy of Directory of Polling Units for Osun State. The respondents did not raise any objection to the admissibility of the two documents issued by the INEC and Pinheiro urged the tribunal to promptly admitted the documents.”
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:33:51 +0000
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