Tribunals in Plateau wind down except for gubernatorial poll
said the decided cases earlier cited by Latef Fagbemi, the lead counsel to Lalong in Nyeson Wike against Peterside and that of Gondir against Nyako did not hold water in the current dispensation.
Ozekhome added that while filing his election form, Lalong wrote ‘dash’ in the column where he was asked whether he ever had another name, thereby lying on oath which is perjury punishable in law, and urging the tribunal to declare Useni winner or at worst a re-election be ordered.
While speaking with journalists outside the court, Ozekhome said that there could not be two emir or oba in one palace, adding, “Lalong has to vacate the palace for the rightful occupant who is General J.T. Useni, who won the election, who the people of Plateau State voted for, and who ought to be declared winner
“We merely said as an alternative that in the event that the court did not find our contention on the name, in the worst scenario, when you deflate and inflate the votes that were cancelled and mutilated, then you will find that the margin of winning is less than the margin of those votes that were cancelled or mutilated. In which case, a re-run ought to be ordered. That is just an alternative.
“The main issue has to do with who contested the election. Form C is a form of INEC which is prescribed under Section 183 of the Electoral Act which also gives INEC power to make guidelines. That form itself is a solemn oath. In fact, the latest decided case of the Supreme Court in Modibbo, described it as a certificate.
“So, when you swear to it, you are swearing that everything you are saying in it is correct and true to the best of your knowledge. The only certificate which is supposed to be a qualifying certificate owned by Governor Lalong bears the name ‘Sule Simon’. Meanwhile, in his change of name, he never referred to the name Sule Simon or that he ever changed his name, when it came to that column, “Have you ever had different names? He said Nil-dash. NIL dash means ‘no’ which is a false declaration.
“And in his affidavit of change of name, he was changing from “Sule Lalong Simon” to “Sule Bako Lalong.” So, we have here a crisis of three names, which he ought to have come to the tribunal to explain by himself or call people from WAEC to say it is the same Sule Simon that bears this name. He has never referred to Sule Simon, which is on his qualification. This automatically shows that he has no qualification to contest the election. Although he may have LLB, LLM, PHD, but he cannot build something upon nothing. That is what the Supreme Court has said in many cases”.
Pwul told journalists that the burden of proof lay with the petitioners because they are the ones challenging the results declared by INEC.
According to him, “We are only defending what INEC has done. We are very comfortable that there has been no evidence sufficient to dislodge the results declared by INEC. As we have demonstrated in court, we are very confident that there is no material presented by the petitioners upon which the election results declared by INEC can be overturned by the tribunal, because on our part, we are very confident that any evidence given has been sufficiently countered and dislodged by the evidence of the witnesses.
“We are very confident that the tribunal will do justice in this matter. We are confident that there is no cause for alarm as far as our client is concerned.”
On the change of names by Governor Lalong, Pwul said, “It is not a strange matter as there are sufficient documents attached to the affidavit showing that he did everything possible according to law. And don’t forget that INEC itself went through all these documents and the witness from INEC. PW71 gave evidence that INEC was sufficiently satisfied that the governor disclosed everything necessary that qualified him to contest the election.