By Amos Igbebe
Not less than 344 witnesses have been billed to testify as the definite hearing of the petitions filed by Chief Great Ogboru of the Labour Party, Otega Emerhor of the All Progressive Congress, challenging the electoral victory of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.
This followed a concluded report presented by the three man tribunal, headed by Justice Nasiru Gunmi, during its sitting in Asaba, where the report of the concluded pre-hearing section was issued to the legal teams of the petitioners and the respondents.
Issuing the reports to all the parties to the petitions, the tribunal fixed Thursday, 20th August, 2015 to start definite trial of the substantive suit of Chief Ogboru and LP, while proper hearing of the main suit of Chief Emerhor and APC was fixed for Monday, August 17th 2015.
The tribunal called on the parties to cooperate and do the needful to enable the tribunal conclude and deliver judgments on the petitions before it.
It would be recalled that during the last sitting of the court on the two petitions during the week, the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, through his lawyer, Mr. Ken Mozia, had informed the court that he intended to take evidence from nine witnesses in the case filed by Chief Emerhor of APC, the petitioner’s lawyer Chief Thompson Okpoko, also had told the court that he intends to call nine while PDP and INEC equally informed the tribunal that they intend to call nine and six witnesses respectively, making a total of 33 witnesses in all.
In the same way, in the petition of Chief Great Ogboru of LP against the governor, both the petitioner and the respondents indicated interest to take evidence from not less than 221 witnesses for the trial.
The breakdown is as follows: Dr. Okowa, 32 witnesses, Chief Ogboru, 36 witnesses, PDP, 30 witnesses while INEC intends to call the highest number of witnesses of 123.
