𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗮’𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗯𝗮𝗵
The Enugu state governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday reserved judgment on the petition by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) challenging the election of Governor Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18 governorship election in the State.
This came after parties in the matter adopted their final addresses.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Kudirat Morayo Akano, said the date would be duly communicated to the parties.
Edeoga is challenging the declaration of Mbah by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the governorship election in the state.
Adopting his final address, Edeoga’s counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, asked the Tribunal to hold the position of his clients and grant the reliefs sought by his client.
This, he said, was because it had been established beyond any reasonable doubt that Mbah was at the time of the election not constitutionally qualified to contest having presented the forged certificate of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to INEC.
He said that the first petitioner’s witness was an authority representing the NYSC, director in charge of corps certification as his evidence proved the matter beyond reasonable doubt as the certificate was not issued by the NYSC.
Awomolo said: “All evidence proved that the second respondent (Mbah) did not collect his certificate. There is incontrovertible evidence that on July 3, 2003, the second respondent (Mbah) became the Chief of Staff of Enugu State to Chimaroke Nnamani. The third defence witness (Udeh), who claimed that he gave letters to him, said he did not know if he got his certificate.
“The evidence of the third Defense witness (DSS) showed that there is nowhere it is proven that DSS investigated the process. Exhibit 63 showed that he did not come from the DSS authority; it also showed that the second respondent procured his NYSC certificate illegally.”
He urged the court to cancel the election in 19 polling units in Udenu local government area due to inaccurate computation, 14 units in Nkanu East and Igbo-Etiti council areas due to over-voting.
“The court has the power to order cancellation in those polling units, I pray to the Tribunal to uphold justice.
Adopting his address, counsel to INEC, Abdul Mohammed, however, urged the Tribunal to dismiss Edeoga’s petition with the substantial course.
Mohammed argued that the so-called letter written by the NYSC disclaiming Mbah’s NYSC certificate should not be regarded.
He said: “This document did not meet the threshold of admissibility as no proof of payment of their certification was ever before the court.
“The second petitioner witness was not the maker of the document, we, therefore, submit that having presented substantial evidence to prove the allegation that NYSC is forged, there is no document for the court to rely on.”
He added that the import of the testimony of 27 petitioner witnesses, who came before the court was that the first petitioner was the aspirant in the second respondent party, therefore, by being an aspirant in that party, the first petitioner could not decamp to another political party and contest on that platform.
The counsel to the second respondent, Chief Wale Olanikpekun asked the tribunal to dismiss Edeoga’s petitions for lacking in merit and a mere academic exercise.
He noted that the NYSC certificate was to aid the second respondent in his qualifications.
Olanipekun noted: “NYSC is not a qualification for contesting governorship election with the evidence of the DSS, you cannot convict a process which has not been proved.
“They have not presented any proof. The petitioners’ witnesses, who came to testify in court were agents without identities, PW 6,7,9,10,11,12,13,22 and 28 admitted that there was no over-voting.”
The counsel to the third respondent, Alex Izinyon told the court to dismiss the petition in its entirety as it was a shadow chasing.
Izinyon said that the evidence required in the polling units was not agents’ evidence, adding that they derailed from their pleading as there was no evidence of forgery in the certificate before the court.
Earlier, the three respondents opposed the application for correction of the petitioners’ written final address, saying that they had already adopted their own final addresses.
Mohammed opposed the application vehemently, saying that the correction was an amendment to add a further address.
However, counsel to the petitioner, S.T Hon urged the tribunal to overrule the three respondents’ submission, adding that the Supreme Court had addressed the issue in the case of INEC against Yusuf, 2020 of the Nigeria Weekly Law Report Part 1714 page 374 to 399.
Justice Akano said that the ruling on the argument of the application for the correction of the petitioner’s final written address would come alongside the judgement.
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