A drama ensued at the Abia State as lawyers of the Labour Party (LP) and Governor Alex Otti attempted to prevent the INEC and NYSC witnesses from testifying to the documents tendered and admitted as exhibits at the governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Umuahia.
This was in the suit filed by Okey Ahiwe and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the declaration of Otti as the winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship election in the state.
It would be recalled that INEC through a letter signed by its Secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the LP did not submit its membership register in Abia State as required by law and that the party failed to notify the electoral body of the date fixed for its congress.
The LP candidate in Abia State, Governor Otti was also accused of failing to submit his NYSC discharge or exemption certificate but rather presented a reference letter to INEC while filling his governorship form.
The two witnesses from INEC and NYSC had arrived on Thursday but were asked to return for proceedings on Saturday, 5th August 2023.
However, after they arrived at the Abia State High Court sitting in Umuahia, the venue of the proceedings, on Friday, a drama ensued as counsel for LP and Otti made efforts to have the testimonies of the INEC and NYSC officials postponed or truncated together.
The drama which started when the petitioners (Ahiwe and PDP) served the respondents with a motion to present the official witnesses of fact for their oral evidence against which the respondents’ lawyers argued that they could not cross-examine the witnesses on the same day because they needed time to study the application.
The tribunal, therefore, adjourned the matter to Saturday, August 5, 2023, for the motion seeking leave of court to allow the official witnesses adopt the documents they brought through their written depositions.
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The respondents’ lawyers begged the court for another adjournment because Anayo Nwakodo who is one of the lawyers representing Labour Party wrote the court that he was ill and that none of the other lawyers in their team, including four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, could cross-examine the witnesses in his absence.
Counsel to the petitioners opposed the motion for adjournment, stating that the witnesses came from outside the state and that the respondents were merely playing to the gallery in their bid to frustrate the case and delay the wheel of justice.
He stated that the respondents were petrified by the weight of the evidence of the official witnesses hence the ploy to use technicalities to delay the inevitable.
After listening to both parties, the tribunal adjourned the matter to Thursday, August 10, for the witnesses to be led in evidence and warned against further use of any form of delay tactics to stall proceedings as the court was working to conclude the case within the period stipulated by the Electoral Act.
Shortly after the adjournment, counsel for the respondents who claimed to be ill and hospitalised was spotted around the high court premises discussing with some Labour Party members who were at the tribunal, a development which irked PDP supporters present.
A PDP chieftain who spoke with newsmen at the tribunal described the attitude of the respondents as being “aimed at delaying the inevitable sacking of the interim government in the state”.
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