The Chairman of Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice K M. Akano has reaffirmed the commitment of the panel to be fair to all parties.
Justice Akano addressing the Court before adjourning on Thursday, noted that the Tribunal aims at getting the best from the petitioners and respondents.
At Thursday’s session, five more witnesses testified for the Labour Party and its March 18, 2023 election governorship candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, bringing to a total of 20 witnesses so far.
Edeoga and the Labour Party are challenging the declaration by INEC of Peter Mbah, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as winner of the 2023 governorship contest in Enugu State.
During the continued hearing, the Petitioners witnesses who claimed to be Party polling units agents, gave evidences alleging that there were irregularities in final election results collated, as against what transpired at the polling units where they served.
The Petitioners counsel, Valerie Azinge, SAN, leading Cyril Nnadi in evidence, the witness who adopted his written deposition on oath, told the court that he served in Udenu Council Area of the State as a Labour Party polling unit agent, testifying that the collated results at the ward level, were at variance with the results originally collated at the polling units.
When separately cross-examined by counsel to Governor Mbah, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, and that of the PDP, Alex Iziyon, SAN, the attention of the witness was drawn to a supposed discrepancy in some paragraphs of his witness written deposition, to which he stood his ground on his oral evidence..
Further, the Respondents counsel revealed that the witness’ Party agent accreditation tag did not emanate from INEC as required by the electoral guidelines.
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Correspondent at the venue of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, reports that before the close of Thursday proceedings, the lead Counsel to the Labour Party and its candidate, Valerie Azinge, SAN, again drew the attention of the court to the fact that INEC was yet to allow the party access to the BVAS machines for inspection as earlier ordered.
(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
