By Sixtus Uket (Calabar)
The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, has granted the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Sandy Ojang Onor permission to inspect the materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the March 18 Governorship Elections in the State.
The 3-man tribunal led by Justice J. O. Okeaya-Inneh, gave the order after hearing the Exparte motion filed by Counsel to the plaintiff, F. Baba Isa Esq, in a Petition No: EPT/CR/GOV/03M/2023 between Senator (Prof.) Sandy Ojang Onor and the Peoples Democratic Party versus the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Bassey Edet Otu, Hon. Peter Agbe Odey and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It also granted an order “granting leave for the parties herein to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used in the Election for the office of the Governor of Cross River State held on the 18th day of March, 2023.”
The Tribunal further granted the plaintiff “an order granting leave to the Applicants to bring this application outside or before the pre-Hearing Session and an order granting leave to the Applicants to argue this Application outside or before the Pre-Hearing Session.
“The parties herein are given permission to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voters’ Register, polling units result sheets, ward collation results sheets, local government collation results sheets and declaration of result sheets used in the conduct of the Election for the office of the Governor of Cross River State held on the 18th day of March, 2023.
“However the scanning and/or making photocopies of the Ballot papers used in the said Election should be carried out jointly with the Respondents, as other Electoral materials earlier mentioned except the Ballot papers are in the custody of the parties herein. It will be a judicious exercise of discretion if the scanning of the Ballot papers and/or making photocopies of same be carried out jointly with the Respondents in the circumstance,” the Tribunal said.
The Tribunal also declined to grant prayer 6 the petitioner for what it described as, lack of facts before the Tribunal in the affidavit in support of the application.
“Prayer (6) is refused. There are no facts placed before the Tribunal in the affidavit in support of the application upon which the order sought can be predicated,” the Tribunal noted.
Prayer 6 of the petitioner had sought an order “restraining the 1st Respondent from tampering with the information embedded in the machines used in the Election for the office of the Governor of Cross River State held on the 18th day of March, 2023.”
It would be recalled that the Governorship Candidate of the PDP at the recently concluded March 18 elections in the State, Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, had vowed to challenge the process that made INEC to declare his opponent of the APC, Senator Bassey Edet Otu winner of the Governorship poll.
Senator Onor said that the exercise was characterised by a plethora of irregularities including over voting, vote buying amongst others hence his decision to challenge the elections.
