Agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have told the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal that the March 9, 2019 Governorship Election was conducted in line with the Electoral Act and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, guidelines.
Testifying at the Tribunal after Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, who was declared winner of the Governorship election opened his defence on Thursday, in a petition filed by the Action Democratic Party(ADP), Governorship Candidate, Victor Fingesi, the ward and local government agents of the PDP said that the election was held under a peaceful atmosphere. They debunked the allegation by the ADP that the Governorship Election was disrupted by violence.
The Collation Agent for Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, Chinyere Igwe, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said he never observed any irregularities during the election.
He added that the election was conducted peacefully in line with the stipulated guidelines across Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.
He told the tribunal that accreditation, election and collation of results were done peacefully and successfully at Port Harcourt City Local Government Area without any suspension.
He said, “Port Harcourt City LGA Collation Centre was at Elekahia Primary School, I was present at the collation centre and I witnessed the collation of results as the collation agent there. The result was announced by the electoral officer on March 10 at about 12 noon.
“Elections went successfully at the 20 wards of the local government area and all due processes were followed, the results were announced accordingly, it was collation at the state level that were suspended and not the local government level.”
Similarly, Dan Nsan, Ward 7 collation agent of the PDP for Andoni Local Government Area, of the State, told the tribunal that he was present at the ward collation centre at his ward, when results were collated by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), adding that he witnessed the collation of unit and ward results into the forms EC8A and EC8B.
Nsan stated: “INEC officials were present at the polling units, they entered the units results at the form EC8A and also entered the ward result into the form EC8B.
“I was given my own copy of the results, but I have submitted them to my party”, he stated.
The PDP agent further told the tribunal that he did not receive any report of malpractices or violence from agents, adding that INEC officials were present at the polling units in Ward 7 and witnessed the processes.
He stressed that election took place in a peaceful and orderly environment, adding that result was entered in the relevant forms and there was no agreement with INEC that the documents were doctored.
The Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal under the chairmanship of Justice J. A. Orjiako has adjourned to Friday, July 26, 2019 for continuation of defence by Governor Wike.
Meanwhile, lawyer to the ADP, Mr. Dolapo Tella Attoni has cross examined an INEC witness and the Electoral officer of Akuku Toru Local government area, Ibifuro .B.Tariah, who admitted that her responses in the tribunal were not consistent with her deposition.
She was challenged with the fact that an INEC press statement had stated that operations in most collation centres were disrupted by armed thugs and that INEC officials were arrested.
The Tribunal would also be expected to unravel how INEC got results from 22 local government areas that it used to declare Wike winner after it had announced that it collated results of 17 local government areas.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday July 23, INEC had presented two witnesses for Asari Toru and Opobo/Nkoro local government areas, Messrs Gambo James and Samuel Udeze, respectively, who denied being the makers of INEC’ s documents, form EC8C, which bears the collated results of the LGAs.
This was coming against the backdrop of the ADP Counsel’s stance that the witnesses were not competent witnesses for the INEC’s documents as the documents did not originate from them.
The witnesses disowned the documents on cross – examination by the ADP counsel who wanted to know whether they could stand as authentic witnesses to the documents.
However, the witnesses admitted having seen the documents as that of their local government area results but denied collating them.
