The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal resumed its sitting in Abuja on Friday, as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, called more witnesses to support the case they filed to nullify the election of Governor Monday Okpebholo.
The witnesses, in separate evidence they gave before the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel tribunal, insisted that the gubernatorial poll that held in the state on September 21, 2024, was rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to them, though the election was properly conducted, they were, however, shocked when they discovered the scores that were allocated to the APC at the end of the poll.
All the witnesses told the tribunal that after they discovered that the votes recorded for their polling units exceeded the total number of voters that were accredited, they immediately protested.
“Concerning the over-voting, right there at the polling unit, I complained to the INEC officer,” the 15th witness, Haruna Ibrahim, who identified himself as a businessman, told the tribunal.
Haruna identified a witness statement on oath he deposed to on October 11, 2024, at Benin, and it was admitted in evidence and marked as an exhibit by the tribunal.
In his evidence, Haruna told the tribunal that he served as a polling unit agent of the PDP in Ward 8, Auchi, during the governorship election.
His agent’s tag was tendered in evidence, though all the Respondents raised objections, saying they would give their reasons in their final address.
The witness further identified the accreditation report from his polling unit, screenshots of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine that was used at the unit, as well as a report from INEC’s IReV portal.
Answering questions during cross-examination, the PW-15 told the tribunal that despite the irregularities he protested against, he had to sign the polling unit result so as to be able to get a copy he would return to his party, PDP.
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“I signed the result, and other agents also signed, including the presiding officers. I signed because I needed a copy of the result for my party,” he added.
Asked if he made his protest in writing to his party, the witness answered in the negative, saying he handed the copy of the result to the party’s Ward Collation Agent.
When the witness was shown a copy of the election result from his polling unit, he confirmed that what was recorded was APC-120 votes, PDP-75, and 6 rejected votes, amounting to a total of 201 votes.
Asked to confirm that accurate computation of the figures established that there was no over-voting, the witness said, “That is not true. There was over-voting, and I complained and requested that the result be cancelled.
“I was hoping to see zero zero zero recorded in all the columns, but I am surprised that I am now seeing figures here.
“My lord, this form is from my unit, but the records are not from my unit,” he insisted.
Asked to look at one of the BVAS machines and tell the tribunal the record of accreditation on it, the witness said he could not because the device was not switched on.
Asked if he knows how to switch on or has ever operated a BVAS machine before, the witness answered in the negative.
He said for the machine to be useful, a person trained to handle it must come before the tribunal to operate it, even as he admitted that he was not the person that took a screenshot of data in the BVAS machine used in his polling unit.
After the PW-15 was discharged, a female witness, Okuo Taiye Esther, mounted the box and also gave a similar testimony.
Esther, who said she served as polling unit agent of the PDP at Ward 1, Unit 2 of Akoko-Edo LGA, insisted that it was during the process of sorting and counting of ballots that she discovered that over-voting took place.
“Before the election, INEC officials will put on the BVAS and display it for everyone to see that there was no figure in it.
“Likewise, after the election, the officials displayed the data in the BVAS to show the number of those that were accredited.
“The total valid votes we got in my polling unit was 228 plus one rejected vote, making it a total of 229.”
When she was asked to calculate the total number of votes in the result that was tendered before the tribunal, which was 142 for the APC, 83 for the PDP, and 11 rejected votes, the witness said it was 236, insisting she did not know why that figure was recorded for her unit.
Both Abubakar Uzairu, a teacher who served as a polling unit agent at Unit 10, Ward 6, Owan East LGA, and Osuluka Righteous, a commercial motorcycle rider who said he served as a polling unit agent of the PDP in Ward 8, Unit 4 of Akoko-Edo LGA, also gave the same evidence as PW-17 and PW-18, respectively.
Meanwhile, INEC, which is the 1st respondent in the matter, through its team of lawyers led by a former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, rejected the evidence of all the witnesses.
Likewise, the legal team of Governor Okpebholo, led by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, and that of the APC, led by Mr. D. C. Nwigwe, SAN, kicked against all the testimonies that were given by the witnesses.
The respondents said they would adduce reasons why testimonies of all the witnesses should not be accorded any probative value in their final written addresses.
Among those that were at the tribunal to observe the proceeding on Friday were the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mr. Dennis Idahosa; the former governor of the state and current senator for Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole; and the immediate past Deputy Governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, who had since defected from the PDP to the APC.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had, on Thursday, admitted in evidence 148 BVAS that were used during the conduct of the disputed governorship poll.
The electronic devices, which were tendered by a senior technical officer in the ICT department of INEC, Mr. Anthony Itodo, were admitted in evidence on a day that two ward agents of the PDP explained that they refused to sign the results of the election owing to irregularities they said took place at the collation centre during the computation process.
The petitioners subpoenaed INEC to produce the BVAS machines that were used in 133 polling units where election results are being disputed.
INEC had declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got a total of 247,655 votes.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal, praying it to nullify INEC’s declaration of the APC and Okpebholo as winners of the contest.
The petitioners, among other things, contended that the governorship election was invalid by reason of alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
They equally argued in the petition marked EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 that Governor Okpebholo of the APC did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.
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