It was again high drama at the Lafia Governorship Tribunal today as the Third Respondent: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) abruptly closed its case without featuring any of the 24 witnesses it had forwarded to defend its case!
INEC was expected to appear in court with witnesses to answer to charges of irregularity lodged by Former Minister of Information and the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the April 11 election in Nasarawa State . Maku’s lawyers led by Chief Joe Kyari Gadzama had submitted a detailed account of irregularities against INEC, including a comprehensive statistical evidence showing that it was APGA that won the election and ought to have been declared and given the certificate of return in Nasarawa State!
The APGA Candidate had also tabled a comprehensive report of inspection of election materials showing proofs of irregularities, including vote inflation, uncustomised ballots, mutilated result sheets, illegal cancellation of results, unsigned ballots, among others to prove APGA’s case against INEC and Governor Tanko Almakura.
Rather than feature any of the witnesses INEC pledged to present in Court today, the Commission just retabled the disputed results it declared on 13th April and abruptly closed its case.
The situation in court was that of bewilderment and surprise. Maku’s Lawyers, commenting on the development expressed pleasant surprise that INEC couldn’t produce a single witness to answer the specific and concrete cases of irregularities raised by Maku and APGA against the conduct and outcome of the April 11 Governorship election in Nasarawa State.
APGA/Maku’s Lawyers averred that so far none of the respondents has disputed in court any of the charges raised by the petitioners against the conduct and result of the April disputed election in Nasarawa State.
The drama in Court today was a continuation of a pattern of upsets that began last week Wednesday when Gov Almakura’s lawyers abruptly closed his case after the Governor’s witnesses began to testify in favour of APGA, stating that it was the Former Minister of Information that won the election in their respective areas on April 11.
Almakura’s lawyers expressed shock at the depositions of Almakura’s witnesses in favour of Maku. The Governor’s lawyers led by Yusuf Ali (SAN), requested and got one day adjournment to meet with the remaining witnesses before continuing the following day. But to the surprise of everyone in court, rather than continue the following day, Almakura’s Lawyers abruptly withdrew all the remaining witnesses and closed their case on Thursday morning without any further explanation.
The Governor’s Legal Team had forwarded a long list of 24 witnesses to help defend their client. They were expected to close their case after 10 days of presentation and review of witnesses in court. It all ended abruptly in few hours in two days.
On Monday the second respondent, the APC also ended its presentation abruptly after its first two witnesses ended up denying their own witness statements under cross examination by Maku/APGA’s lawyers!
One of the APC witnesses under cross examination even denied his own signature on the witness statement, stating that t was not his own. Uncomfortable and anxious about the damage from the first two witnesses, APC lawyers withdrew the remaining 53 witnesses and closed their case under two hours rather than the 10 days allotted to them under the schedule of the Tribunal’s proceedings.
With today’s dramatic turn of events, the Respondents have all pulled back their witnesses, apparently to curtail damage on the floor of the tribunal!
Reacting to the development, the APGA governorship candidate, Labaran Maku in a phone conversation expressed satisfaction with the proceedings so far. Maku declared that the failure of the three respondents: Gov Almakura, the APC and especially the INEC to feature their witnesses clearly showed that they were afraid of exposing themselves further on the crimes they committed in the name of election between April 11 and April 13 in Nasarawa State.
He said it would have been a surprise if INEC allowed its witness to appear in court as the witnesses of the First and 2nd respondents had already sufficiently embarrassed INEC by averring that APGA won the April 11 governorship election! What INEC did, Maku stated, was to reduce its shame by hiding its witnesses from the court!
Maku said his case is as clear as the sun at noon and thanked God for revealing the truth about the electoral fraud that was perpetrated in Nasarawa State in the conduct of the April 11 election, adding that the truth will prevail over fraud and falsehood!
Emmanuel Yaro
APGA Secretary
Nasarawa State
