The
Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital on
Friday upheld the election of Governor David Umahi of the People’s Democratic
Party, (PDP) as the winner of the governorship election held in the state on
April 11, 2015.
In an eight hour judgment, the
tribunal in its ruling held that the petitioner failed to prove his case beyond
reasonable doubt and consequently dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.
The Labour Party candidate in the
election, Dr Edward Nkwegu had approached the tribunal seeking for the
nullification of the victory of Umahi on ground that the election was marred by
irregularities and substantial non compliance with the provisions of electoral
act and provisions of the constitutions of the federal republic of Nigeria.
The petitioner also contended that
the election was marred by corrupt practices and that the first Respondent
(David Umahi) did not score the majority of the lawful votes cast which he said
were enough ground to nullify the election.
The three-man panel headed by Theresa
Egoche began by striking out paragraphs containing allegations against named
and unnamed persons who were not parties contained in the petition on the
grounds that they are vague, imprecise and lacking in simplicity in line with
objections of the counsels to the Respondents.
The panel also rejected INEC election
guidelines for the governorship election tendered as evidence by the petitioner
on the ground that it was not part of the list of evidences sought to be
tendered in the petition by the petitioner.
Also, the tribunals held that the
electoral guidelines were mere instructions and have no force of law against
the offenders/defaulters and as such cannot be a ground to challenge an
election.
She noted that a breach in the
electoral guideline as alleged by the petitioner cannot be a ground to nullify
the election.
On
the usefulness of the evidences tendered by the Expert witness called by the
petitioner, the tribunal held that it never asked for any expert analysis to be
able to consider whether there was over voting or not in the said election and
for that reason cannot use such evidences in the analysis of expert witness as
grounds to determine the petition.
It ruled equally that the petitioner
failed to tie evidences dumped before the tribunal to his claims noting that a
judge is an adjudicator and not an investigator.
It observed that the petitioner’s
Witnesses on the process of cross examination discredited the evidences earlier
tendered by the petitioner before the tribunal.
She said: “The inability of the
petitioner to call witnesses who were present during the election to prove his
claim that the results shown through the card readers’ evidence were the
authentic makes his claim doubtful and cannot be relied upon by the tribunal.
“None of the witnesses called by the
petitioner gave the evidence of how the card reader functioned at their polling
units “the panel further held”.
It also held that the petitioner who
is alleging over voting did not tender any result sheet showing that votes were
illegally allocated/awarded to the first Respondent.
“We cannot see the evidence of non-compliance
to the electoral act or guidelines in the evidences given by petitioner’s
witnesses”.
“The petitioner having failed to
provide evidence showing that he scored the highest number of votes proves that
the first respondent was duly elected,” the tribunal said.
Counsel to the petitioner A.I
Akaraiwe thanked the panel and urged them to make the copies of the judgment
available to concerned parties as soon as possible.
Counsels to Chief Umahi (1st
respondent), Chief Arthur Obi Okafor SAN, PDP Chief J.U.K Igwe SAN and INEC E.S
Nriezedi commended the tribunal for the judgement.
Reacting to the judgment, Governor
Dave Umahi said he had relied on God throughout the period of the petition. He
reiterated the readiness of his administration to fight corruption in the
state.
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