The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday closed itsdefence at the Delta State governorship election petition tribunal sitting in
Asaba, but without calling any witness.
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The All Progressives
Congress and its candidate, O’tega Emerhor, are challenging the declaration, by INEC, of Ifeanyi Okowa of Peoples Democratic Party as winner of the April 11 governorship election.
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In the course of the trial, the PDP also closed its case two weeks ago, also
without calling witness.
It, however, said it would rely on the four witnesses called by its candidate, Mr. Okowa.
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At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, the counsel to INEC, D.D.
Dodo, who was represented by
Onyinye Anumonye,
however, tendered an
exhibit, the unit-by-unit accreditation by card reader.
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But the document was
rejected by the tribunal, citing improper certification. It was unclear what the purpose of the exhibit was, as the
tribunal had admitted
the card reader report
document from Mr.
Emerhor.
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Meanwhile, similar to
PDP, INEC also told the
tribunal it would rely
on the testimonies of
Mr. Okowa’s witnesses.
Earlier, two INEC officials – Assistant Director, ICT
Department from Abuja headquarters and Chief
Planning Officer, Delta State Office – had been called as witnesses by Mr. Emerhor.
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The INEC officials tendered unit-by-unit accreditation report which showed Mr. Okowa
scored more votes that the number of voters that were electronically accredited.
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They also tendered the INEC directive that said only card readers should be used for the April 11 election.
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They told the tribunal that, “the card readers recorded no sustained failure during the governorship election in Delta State and accredited number of voters as at April 29 was 709,000 and at the expiration of the shutting down of data
upload, the final tally was
715,393.”
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But on April 13, Delta State INEC put the figure of accredited voters at 1,017,796, exceeding
actual accreditation number as shown by the admitted report obtained from INEC central server.
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Announcing Mr. Okowa as the winner of the election on April 13, the Returning Officer, Bio Nyananyo, said the PDP candidate polled 724,680 votes,
which translated to 14,980 votes higher than actual number of
accredited voters.
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However, in closing its case, INEC through its counsel, insisted that from “the evidence and
document so far tendered
before the tribunal, it had
conviction that it conducted a free and fair election in the state”.
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The case was then adjourned to October 13 for parties to submit and adopt all written addresses.
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Two weeks after, the panel will deliver judgment.
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I CANT WAIT O!