Udom, PDP Begin Defence at Guber Poll Tribunal
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmauel Udom and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have opened the defence of their victory in the April 11 governorship poll in the state at the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The two defendants, having exhausted available legal options to stop the sitting of the tribunal in Abuja instead of the state, yesterday called four witnesses who testified that the election was peacefully conducted throughout the state.
The first defence witness was one Dr. Bassey Asuquo who told the tribunal headed by Justice Sadiq Umar that the election was conducted without violence and that he voted in the polls.
The witness who was led in evidence by the counsel to Governor Udom, Paul Usoro (SAN), claimed to be a medical scientist and polling agent of the PDP, denied allegations of ballot boxes hijack and any form of violence.
He said in his testimony that the results were collated from all the 14 units in Uyo Local Government Area except in three units where he admitted that the election could not be conducted because of violence allegedly ignited by one Mr. Friday Edem a ward chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The witness maintained that the said Edem allegedly obstructed the election process with a group of thugs and that all efforts to do accreditation by the officials of the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) failed.
However, under cross examination by the counsel to the petitioners, APC and its governorship candidate Chief Umana Okon Umana, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the witness admitted that 941 votes were recorded for the PDP in the units he claimed election did not hold.
The witness also read out collated nine results sheets from different units signed by one Joseph Okon Peter, who claimed to be a collation agent of the PDP.
Other witnesses are Mr. Godwin Ndukude, Isaiah Abia and one Maxwell.
In his own evidence, Mr. Godwin Ndukude a former Commissioner for Transport during the election, claimed that the election was free and fair and that he voted in the poll.
Although the witness claimed that accreditation was done before the election, he however could not point out a single name marked for accreditation on the voters register by the officials of the independent national electoral commission.
Meanwhile the Attorney-General of Akwa Ibom State and a counsel in the legal team of Governor Udom, Mr. Emmanuel Nwoko in an interview told journalists that the petitioners had failed to establish that there substantial malpractices that could warrant cancellation of the election as being demanded by the petitioners.
Nwoko maintained that the petitioners who closed their petition last Friday succeeded in calling only 48 witnesses out of the 884 he listed to testify for him.
He noted that even with the evidence of the petitioners’ witnesses, he only succeeded in proving to the tribunal that they had no case since there were no weighty proven facts that established that there was no election in the state.
According to the state Attorney-General, “even though there were a few skirmishes during the elections, there was a substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 used by INEC to conduct the election.”
Meanwhile further hearing continues today.