As Chief Willie Obiano, candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)declared winner of the November 16,17 and 30th, 2013 disputed gubernatorial elections and sworn in as governor in March opens his defence Friday , May 2 in an election petition instituted by Dr Chike Obidigbo, a co-claimant of the candidature if APGA there are indications that Obiano will himself mount the witness box.
Sources close to the Legal team speak of the plan to for rebuttal evidence on the damaging allegation which , may not only send Obiano out of office, but mar his chances of re-contesting the position if another election is ordered.
Obidigbo had tendered documents to confirm that Obidigbo is registered jn Lagos, with VIN number ,90F5 B12B 0129 6204 171,while still being registered in two other places in the voter register in Anambra State with the VIN numbers of 90F5 B12B 8837 7091 121 issued on August 21,2013 and VIN 90F5 B15E 7037 8200 332 issued on September 3, 2013 .
Obiano claims in his defence that VIN 90F5 B15E 7037 8200 332, attached to his affidavit of confirmation of information, Form CF 001 , is as result of the transfer of the voter information from Lagos, but a document purported to be Obiano’s application to transfer was on Wednesday thrown out by the tribunal, following the objection raised by Obidigbo through his lawyers because it was neither pleaded in Obiano’ defence , nor listed as part of the documents to be relied on in the trial. Hence, in the words of Nzeoba Maduabuchi ,ESQ, the document is an after-thought’.
However the Lagos voter register extract from INEC as certified confirms that Obiano is still a registered voter till date even when Obiano’ pleading does not provide an answer the existence of 90F5 B12B 8837 7091 121, which still exists upon a search in the INEC website.Indeed in another petition before the tribunal, lawyers to Senator Chris Ngige on Monday caused a letter from INEC refusing to certify the search results on this card forwarded to INEC by the lawyers for not coming from Anambra State, raising another legal battle front since only Anambra State voter register has been uploaded on the web site of INEC.
Meanwhile,the Independent Electoral Commision INEC, yesterday opened there defence
in election petition EPT/AN/GOV/02/2013 brought before the Anambra State
Election Petition Tribunal on December 20, 2013 by Senator Chris Nwabueze
Ngige and his political party, All Progressive Congress, APC seeking to
nullify the November 2013 elections.
Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN lead counsel for INEC, tendered three sets of
documents comprising Local Government results in the disputed elections,
state results sheets and declaration of candidates form ( Form EC 8C, Form
EC8D and Form EC8E)and announced the closure of INEC’s case without calling
any witness.
A battery of INEC officials who made up the 26 witnesses originally
listed to testify in the matter were present including Anambra State INEC Director of Operations Mr Okon Ewa and the Electoral
Officer for Anambra East Local Government Area of the state Mr Nsofor
which superintended over Otuocha Ward I results, which results among the few not tendered before the tribunal so far.
Emeka Ngige, SAN who led the appearance of APC and Sen. Ngige on Monday told
the press shortly after the closure of INEC’s case that the implication of the forfeiture of ure by INEC’s right to call witnesses is that all the wtness depositions filed in
respect of INECwill be discountenanced’
Indeed while addressing the three-man tribual headed by Hon Justice Ishaq
Bello , Awomolo, had said : ‘We shall rely on the documents we have
tendered and the information obtained during the cross-examination of the
witnesses called by the petitioners for our
In another development Dr Chike Ibidigbo in petition No EPT/AN/GOV/01/2013
filed on December 19,2013 followed the footsteps of other petitioners by
re-opening his case which had been closed earlier, to lead further evidence.
Obidigbo tendered a certified True Copy of the Oluwakemi/Zainab Strret
Junctin Registration Centre Voter Register, in Ifako/Soluyi Registration
Area of Kosofe Local Government in Lagos State certified by INEC in Lagos
State to show that Obidigbo is still a registerd voter in Lagos.
Senator Ngige had tendered the same document in furtherance of his own
petition, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Tony Nwoye, as
separate partiesin their respective petitions , EPT/AN/GOV/03/2013 and
EPT/AN/GOV/04/2013 also included the certified exhibit , admitted in
Ngige’s case as Exhibut P.424.
Under cross examination Obidigbo said ‘INEC is perfect’ when Awomolo asked
if INEC has ever made any mistake known to him.
He also said when asked how sure he was that the document he tendered as
exhibit relected the current state of the Lagos register that ‘the document
that has ben tendered was certified on 24th April ,2014’.
Obidigbo denued any knowledge or awareness of a transfer of voter
infirmation for Obiano from Lagos to Ananbra State nting in answer to yeg
another question that whille it is possible for someone with one
registration with one voter identification number (VIN) to effect a
transfer as of right, ‘it is not possible to do any transfer if avoter
already has three registrations with three different VINs’.
The whole coyrt burst into laughter when Awomolo said to Obidigbo : ‘I put
it to you that Obiano transferred his voter information from Lagos to
Anambra Srate’ and Obidigbo replied saying : ‘Thhat is for my information’.
When The lawyer repeated the question, the petitioner said he did not know.
The tribunal refused an attempt by Awomolo to tender a document purpoted to
be Obiano’s letter of application for transfer of voter information and
INEC’s aproval folllowing the objection raised by Nzeoba Maduabuch, cousel
fof Obidigbo on the basis that the document was neither pleaded , listed
nor certifued and Awomolo’s prompt withdrawal of the alien document.
