The Labour Party (LP) on Wednesday said that it is yet to come to terms with the judgment delivered by the Enugu State Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the election of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite overwhelming evidence that speaks to the contrary.
National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Obiora Ifoh in a press conference at the Party’s National Headquarters, Jabi Abuja said that the scenario in Enugu is akin to what played out in Nasarawa State. He lamented that while the Tribunal in Nasarawa admitted the testimonies of the witnesses that affirmed that the votes of the PDP in Ashigie Ward and Chiroma Ward were wrongly suppressed even when they were not accredited party agents and ordered the restoration of the said votes to the PDP, the Enugu Tribunal discountenanced the testimonies of witnesses who affirmed that there were manifest over-voting in Owo and Ugbawka for the reason that they were not accredited witnesses of the Party.
The party said that the Enugu Tribunal jettisoned the provisions of Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022 which provides that where there is original or certified true copy of a document before the court or tribunal that can establish manifest non-compliance, parties are not required to adduce oral evidence.
LP lamented that the Enugu Tribunal feigned ignorance of the provisions of Section 137 of the Electoral Act and insisted on additional calling of oral witnesses to prove over-voting in Owo and Ugbawka, even when Labour Party already filed copious INEC certified true copies of the BVAS Accreditation Reports.
He said that the Tribunal also refused to take serious note of the issue of the forgery of National Youth Service Certificate by Mbah even after an official of NYSC publicly disowned the certificate Mbah was parading.
The party said, “our argument herein is that Enugu governorship election, Nasarawa governorship election and Nkanu East State Constituency election presented similar facts, yet the Enugu governorship tribunal gave a different judgment from what was correctly held by the Nasarawa governorship tribunal and the tribunal in Nkanu East State Constituency election petition. The Tribunal in Enugu jettisoned the provisions of Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022 which provides that where there is original or certified true copy of a document before the court or tribunal that can establish non-compliance and it is shown that the said non-compliance is manifest on the face of that document, parties are not required further to adduce oral evidence in proof of their cases. The tribunal in Enugu insisted on calling of oral witness in support of the tendered documentary evidence in spite of the clear provisions of Section 137 of the Electoral Act.
“However, in contrast, the Tribunal in Nasarawa, in line with the provisions of Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, rightly relied on the documentary evidence contained in the certified true copies of the print out of the BVAS Accreditation Reports to cancel the votes in Gadagwa Ward, Nasarawa Eggon Ward, Shege Ward, Sabon Gari and in other wards where over voting took place without necessarily insisting that oral witnesses be adduced in support of the tendered documentary evidences. Again, in the House of Assembly election tribunal judgment in Nkanu East State Constituency, the tribunal was also right to rely on only the documentary evidence contained in the certified true copies of the print out of the BVAS Accreditation Reports, without insistence on oral evidence, to order the cancellation of the over-voting in Owo and Ugbawka.
“On the issue of Mbah’s NYSC Discharge Certificate saga, the purported issuer of the forged certificate, through a subpoena issued by the Enugu Tribunal, appeared before it to testify that the NYSC Discharge Certificate Gov. Peter Mbah submitted to INEC was not issued by them.
“Sadly, for some strange reasons, the Tribunal thereafter discountenanced the evidence of the Director of Corps Certifications of the NYSC who came to testify at the Tribunal. That testimony, without much ado, fulfils the requirements of the law on proof of forgery and should have indeed proved the case of the petitioner but Justice Akano-led panel glibly dismissed the pivotal evidence of a key witness it invited to testify before it”.
The party recalled that the LP candidate, Hon. Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, was cruising to victory with the results of the election declared in 16 out of 17 LGAs of the state when INEC added additional 30,000 votes to Mbah in the remaining Nkanu East LGA, even when only about 15,000 voters were accredited to vote in that home LGA of Mbah.
LP said that the INEC’s returning officer, Prof Maduebibisi Iwe, rejected the figures from Nkanu East because the BVAS was discarded, prompting the INEC headquarters to invite him to Abuja.
“After three days, an Abuja INEC panel led by Festus Okoye reduced the total 33,000+ votes illegally hurled from Nkanu East alone to about 19,000, but gave Mbah almost 17,000 votes to enable him beat LP’s Edeoga (who was leading with 11,000+ votes) with 3,000+ votes”.
LP further noted that LP in the March 18 governorship election won 2 out of the 3 senatorial seats in the State; 7 out of the 8 Rep seats in the State and 14 out of the 24 seats in the State House of Assembly.
