PUNCH
The Labour Party and its governorship candidate in the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga have officially closed their case against the election that produced Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party the governor.
Edeoga and his party are challenging the election of Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party insisting that it was rigged and that Mbah didn’t score the highest valid votes cast during the poll.
He is also praying the tribunal disqualify Mbah over an alleged forgery of the National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate.
The LP candidate closed his case after he tendered several documentary evidence and called a total of 30 witnesses that testified before the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Enugu.
Among the exhibits he tendered before the court included polling unit results (form EC8A) in all the areas in contention; ward collation results (form EC8B) in the affected areas and a summary of the results as well as the declaration of the results.
The petitioners also tendered among many others, the NYSC produced documents of Oma and Partners; form EC9 of Chijioke Edeoga and Governor Peter Mbah as well as the BVAS machines which was brought to court by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who was subpoenaed to appear before the court on Sunday.
Though Edeoga initially told the court that he would call a total of 37 witnesses to testify in the matter, he closed his case on Sunday with the testimony of the Enugu State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who appeared as the 18th witness for the petitioners.
At the resumed hearing on Sunday where the REC was subpoenaed to produce, BVAS machines, one of the senior staff of the commission, Victor Okafor, brought only five BVAS machines as against the number demanded by the petitioners.
Edeoga had applied for a subpoena on the REC to produce the BVAS machines from Owo, Ugbawka 1 Registration Areas in Nkanu East LGA as well as some other polling units in Igboeze North LGA.
But, during cross-examination by the petitioners’ counsel, Okafor who appeared on behalf of the REC, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, said he was mandated to produce five BVAS machines before the tribunal.
He said that the information that was generated on the BVAS machines during the governorship election on March 18 was now contained in the BVAS report from the Headquarters in Abuja.
He said that he did not have the BVAS machines for the Owo and Ugbawka 1 registration areas of the Nkanu East Local Government Area, adding that the machines could only be identified by their codes.
According to him, the codes of the five BVAS machines brought included 14/08/06/003, 14/08/01/002, 14/08/06/005, 14/08/17/012, 14/08/01/003,
“All the machines contained the BVAS and accessories,” he said.
