ALL is set for Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha to begin his defence this week at the Election Tribunal against two cases instituted against him by Senator Ifeanyi Araraume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Ihedioha would have to prove that results from the 22 local government councils he purportedly got during the last governorship election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were not duplicitously collated and recorded for him – as claimed by APGA and APC’s candidates.
Araraume and Uzodinma urging the tribunal to nullify and set aside the March 9 governorship election for being invalid and non-compliant with the provision of the Electoral Act 2010 and the 1999 Constitution.
Araraume is seeking an order voiding the Certificate of Return issued to Ihedioha as the governor-elect. The suit also has the INEC and PDP as respondents. In his petition no: IM/EPT/GOV/03/2019 dated March 29, and filed on his behalf by Ahmed Raji (SAN); K.C Nwufo (SAN); I. K Bawa (SAN) and others, the petitioner prayed for an order that INEC conduct a fresh gubernatorial election in Imo State, in compliance with the provision of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The petitioner averred that all the scores and purported votes from Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu Mbaise, Ehime Mbano and other 17 local government areas of the states, were void and unlawful and rightly so. Giving “facts’’ in support of the voiding of the election in the stated councils. Araraume argued that INEC, in preparation for the election, had sourced electoral officers from suspected institutions like University of Agriculture, Umudike.
He alleged that the said electoral officers were “inexplicably’’ changed hours to the election, and replaced with a different set of untrained electoral officers and ad-hoc staff. And further averred that the new, untrained electoral officers and ad-hoc staff, most of who hail from Mbaise LGA – Ihedioha’s LGA, were then appointed and deployed within hours to the start of the governorship election, stating that these untrained electoral staff did not subscribe to the oath of neutrality.
The APGA candidate also claimed that there was massive hijacking and diversion of ballot papers and other electoral material to places other than polling units where several booklets of ballot papers were “massively thumb printed’’ by agents of PDP in favour of Ihedioha in the aforementioned LGAs, coupled with ballot box snatching and stuffing with ballot papers.
He said the multiple thumb-printed ballot papers for Ihedioha were subsequently stuffed into the ballot boxes and recorded in favour of the PDP and its candidate in the stated LGAs.
The petitioner insisted that the agents of PDP and Ihedioha, acting on their instructions and authorisation, procured massive numbers of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and wrongfully used them on the Smart Card Readers – resulting in false record of accreditation on the Smart Card Readers, as shown by the serial and sustained fingerprint verification failure in the polling units.
Araraume added that the consequences of the alleged corrupt practices allegedly perpetrated by PDP and its candidate, acting through their agents and surrogates, led to the purported victory of PDP and its candidate at the election.
The respondent, he said, did not win one-quarter of the votes cast at the said election in each of at least two-third of all the local government areas in the state, as required by Section 179(2) and (3) of the 1999 constitution. The APGA candidate said that he submitted the said result sheets as in Forms EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and EC8E to a specialist for his professional analysis, adding that upon the said computation, he discovered that the PDP’s candidate did not secure one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-third of all the 27 LGAs in the state, as required by the constitution.
He also declared that out of the 27 LGAs in the state, the purported winner of the election scored 25 per cent of total votes cast in 12 local government areas, thereby rendering his purported return invalid.
There seems to be anxiety in Ihedioha’s camp over the case. This stems from the statement of INEC’s lawyer in the ongoing election case between Araraume and Governor Ihedioha that his sole witness would no longer be testifying in the case. The whole drama started when the INEC’s counsel, Mr. Aham Ekeh Ejelam (SAN), pleaded with the tribunal to give him time to produce his sole witness to testify in the case, and eventually the witness failed to turn up at the tribunal. Asked by the Chairman, Justice M. U. Dogodanji, at the continuation of the hearing, if he had another witness, Ejelam responded: “I cannot present another witness when the real witness name was forwarded to the tribunal in our front loaded documents.’’
INEC’s counsel pleaded with the tribunal to adjourn for 24 hours to enable him put his house together and bring his sole witness to the court. However, at the resumed hearing, the counsel to INEC told the court that he could not produce his sole witness, informing the court that INEC had no witness to present and consequently closed his case.
Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Ihedioha’s counsel, however, pleaded with the court to adjourn till August 16 to enable him to open his defence. But the court declined to his request and fixed yesterday and today for the opening of their defence, saying the tribunal is running out of time.
The fireworks at the tribunal sitting in Owerri, the lmo State capital, begun with Senator Araraume testifying. His petition received a boost, as the court accepted all his evidence, including the INEC’s certified ‘’back end report’’ tendered by his lead counsel, Kalu (SAN).
Uzodinma is praying the tribunal to nullify the declaration of Ihedioha, as winner of the election by the INEC. He urged the tribunal to declare him the winner, having polled majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and satisfied the mandatory constitutional threshold and spread across the state, saying he “ought to be returned.’’
His petition alleged that the INEC fraudulently excluded votes cast for the APC at the polling units across the state, which gave the PDP candidate advantage, adding however, that after tabulating the valid votes at the polling units, he defeated the PDP candidate with a large margin. The petition opined that “it was at the course of collation of the results at the ward, local government and state levels, that INEC incorrectly stated the votes of Ihedioha, and thus reduced his votes by excluding the results from the polling units where he scored overwhelming majority of the votes cast. The petitioner has further claimed that it was in order to give unfair advantage to Ihedioha that INEC unlawfully credited him with votes arising from over voting in all of the polling units in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Mbaise LGAs. The petition further argued that the INEC did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and INEC guidelines for 2019 general elections when it recruited relatives of the PDP’s candidate as collation officers and Returning Officers in most of the Local Government Areas in the state during the election.
- Okoye writes from Owerri, Imo State capital
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