Home / News / Local / Delta Guber Polls: Tribunal over rules Ogboru’s objection to Okowa’s bid to tender documents

Delta Guber Polls: Tribunal over rules Ogboru’s objection to Okowa’s bid to tender documents

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State

The three-man -panel of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, Monday, over ruled   objections  by  the Labour Party (LP) and its gubernatorial candidate in the last governorship election, Chief Great Ogboru , following   a bid by Okowa’s counsels  to tender documents in court.

At the resumed hearing of the matter Monday, Counsel to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Mr. Ken Mozie(SAN) had during cross examination of Labour Party (LP) sate chairman, Chief Toni Ezeagwu, who is also one of the star witness to Ogboru, sought to tender  a document containing notice of Labour party gubernatorial primary to INEC  to the tribunal.

But counsel to Ogboru, Mr. Dele  Adesina (SAN)  interjected  by objection arguing that the document sought to be tendered was neither pleaded , listed nor frontloaded, saying that such move violates the Electoral Act of 2012.

However, Mozia stood his ground, arguing  that the document   was pleaded  in paragraph one of the first respondent reply , pointing out that the essences of cross examination was to test the veracity of the witness statement and the document we sought to tender is key element   in testing the witness , in order words , it is relevant .

He further that “the documents were pleaded and relevant to the witness, therefore, the petitioner cannot say they were taken by surprise as them said document raised from their own reply the respondents.”

Counsels   to  INEC and PDP ,  Dr. Onyeachi  Ikpeazu  (SAN) and  Mr. Timothy Kehinde who aligned themselves with the position  of Mozia (SAN) argued that under Evidence Act,  a witness  can be  cross examined on any document  that is not listed, adding that in the instant cases, the documents sought to be      were frontloaded and listed.

In a brief ruling,  Chairamn of the tribunal  Justice Nasiru  Gunmi over ruled the objections  and admitted the document as exhibit .

Ezeagwu ,  while in the witness box, during a  cross examination by the respondents counsel  confirmed that  some LP agent  were arrested by the police in connection of the theft of some INEC document , adding that the matter is currently in court.

Ezeagwu further  told the court that  while preparing his statement deposition  on oath before the court, the INEC officials, party agents and his lawyers  made input and assisted  with relevant information  while preparing the statement as it was not whole his idea.

He also affirmed that the governorship election which PDP, APC and LP participated was conducted largely with the use of card readers, adding that, page 18.8, page 62 of the petition was not signed by the petitioner.

He also testified that during the election, information about the election results were received from their party agents as he did not participate in the uploading of information into INEC saver.

When confronted with the election  result figures  were Okowa scored  724,680 votes ,  to defeat  Ogboru who  polled 130,028, and that even when the 205,000 disputed votes were removed from the total score, that Okowa  scored the higher votes ,  Ezeagwu concluded that INEC calculation will not be correct.

Attempt  by the  INEC counsel to further cross examine  Ezeagwu met a brick wall as he( Ezeagwu) directed that   further questioning should be directed his party counsel and declined to answer further  questions .

Attempts by the tribunal chairman to compel Ezeagwu to answer questions as directed by the respondents counsel did not yield result, and Justice Gunmi has to asked him to step out from the witness box and adjourned the matter to tomorrow , 8th of September, 2015 for continuation of trial.

About Global Patriot Staff

Check Also

Bridging energy access gap vital for Nigeria’s economic growth, says NNPC Chief

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has emphasized the critical importance of bridging …

One comment

  1. Valentine Omajajah

    I am appealing to the three man tribunal headed by justice Nasiru Gunmi, of delta state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in asaba, to speed off hearing. We the people of delta state are longing for the final verdict.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *