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| Ozekhome answering questions from Journalists after Court session on Friday |
Ozekhome speaks on greatest challenge
at Plateau Tribunal as Useni, PDP Close case
By Joseph A. Adudu
July 12, 2019
Chief
Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and head of legal team to Sen.
Jeremiah Timbut Useni and the People’s Democratic Party (petitioners) at the
Plateau state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at West of Mines,
Jos has said that his greatest challenge at the tribunal was terror acts and
death threats to some of their witnesses.
Ozekhome made this statement on Friday while answering questions
from journalists and specifically to a question asked by African Drum on his challenges at the tribunal after closing petitioners’
case. “Our greatest challenge within the period is that many of the witnesses
were terrorized, they were threatened that they will be killed if they come
here to testify. Indeed, some of them actually came. They were put in the
hotels by the petitioners and on the day they were to testify, they chicken out.
I told this honorable tribunal yesterday. They chicken out and said they had just
gotten phone calls that if they testify they should rather remain in Jos and
never return to their destinations because, they would be dead. And they gave
examples to my lawyers who were constantly interviewing them that it happened
in 2015 when a witness testified and before he finished; his house was burnt
down completely.
“So the witnesses told us straight away on phone when
they had already vacated the hotels that ‘we need our lives, we are family men,
we can no longer testify’. That has been the greatest challenge that we had”,
said Ozekhome. He however said that by the grace of God and with the number of
witnesses called, he believed they have established the case on the preponderance
of evidence and on the balance of probability. “This is not a criminal case
that you must prove beyond reasonable doubt, we never alleged any crime in this
tribunal”, he said.
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| Chief Ozekhome and Chief Odey at the Tribunal on Friday |
The learned silk further stated that they were able to
show that there was cancellation of entries of results by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) unilaterally contrary to the laws as testified
by PW7, who is INEC Official who testified that INEC has no power to alter
results of elections unilaterally behind the back of political parties and
their agents. “That has been our case, that after Form EC81 was duly signed by
polling agents and others (some of them were even forced to sign), INEC still
went behind to alter some of these results in various forms like EC8b, EC8c and
EC8d. That has been the case and we were able to established it”, he said.
On the issue of disqualification or non-qualification,
Ozekhome said that they have also been able to show that qualification is both
pre and post election matter. “If you are not qualified to contest an election,
the necessary corollary is that you can also be disqualified. It’s a constitutional
issue. What the respondents’ lawyers tried to show during cross-examination is that
the governor did say he changed his name, but the question is; in your form that
you filled which is a sworn affidavit before you contested the election, what
did you say? Did you agree that you ever changed any name? That is the issue”,
he said.
The legal luminary added that the petitioners had a very
strong case at the tribunal stressing that though some of their witnesses were
threatened and could not testify, but that it was not the number of witnesses that were called that matters but the quality of these witnesses.
Useni and PDP are challenging at the tribunal the
declaration of Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong as Governor of Plateau State by INEC
in the February/March 2019 Governorship election in the State.
At the end of the Pre-hearing session of the tribunal and
the delivery of its pre-hearing report, the petitioners opened their case and
utilized just eleven (11) out of the 14 days required by law, called 71 witnesses, tendered over 300 exhibits and closed their case.
The last witness (PW71) on supeanea
was Yagba S. Kundu, Head of Department Operations and Logistics INEC Plateau
State. In line with the application made by the counsel to the petitioners which
was granted by the tribunal, PW71 identified all the exhibits tendered and
admitted by the tribunal in line with his witness statement deposed to stating
that he can identify duplicates and certified true copies (CTC) of INEC documents used
during the Plateau State Governorship election in 2019.
The document identified by PW71 included exhibit P3,
identified as INEC manual for Election Official in 2019 General Elections. Exhibits
P28A– P100A identified as polling unit results, CTCs of Form EC8A and duplicate
copies of Form EC8A voting points (VPs), Exhibits 101-106 INEC voters Registers
indentified as Electronic Voters Registers for PUs, Exhibit P107-P121 which are
CTCs of Form EC8A and duplicate copies, uncertified copies of Form EC8A, CTCs
of Electronic voters for PUs, Exhibits P122-P144 CTCs of Electronic Voters
Registers for PUs, Exhibits P145-P185 CTCs of Form EC8A and uncertified duplicate
copies of form EC8A and Exhibits P186-P190, CTCs of Electronic Voters Registers
for PUs. The witness confirmed all the documents to be INEC documents.
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| Cross section of Counsels and part of the evidences tendered before the close of case by the Petitioners on Friday |
Having identified and confirmed the above documents,
petitioners’ counsel sought and got the leave of the tribunal and tendered from
the Bar additional 25 documents having also identified by PW71 as INEC
documents. The documents were CTCs of Electronic Voters Registers for PUs.
PW71 was thereafter, cross-examined by counsels to INEC,
Clement Onwuenwunor, Simon Bako Lalong, Pius Akubo (SAN) and All Progressive
Congress (APC) Olusola Oke (SAN) who 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively.
As the petitioners closed their case, the tribunal on the unanimous request by
both petitioners and respondents counsels adjourned the case until July 25,
2019 for opening of defense by the respondents.
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