The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kogi State Governor Usman Ododo, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have urged the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja to dismiss the petition filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) against the result of last year’s election.
The tribunal yesterday reserved judgment till a date to be communicated to the parties in the dispute over the November 11, 2023 poll.
The SDP and its candidate in the election, Murtala Ajaka, are, by their petition, challenging the victory of Ododo in the November 11 poll.
Lawyers to the parties in the petition yesterday made their final submissions and adopted their written addresses.
The INEC, the APC, and Ododo urged the three-member panel tribunal, led by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, to dismiss the petition for being unmeritorious.
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INEC’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi (SAN), argued that the petition lacked merit and was incompetent.
He said: “It is our humble submission that your work in the determination of this petition is simplified in recent judgments by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.”
The former Justice minister averred that the Court of Appeal had decided that if the grounds of a petition are inconsistent with one another and also inconsistent with the reliefs sought, it should be struck out.
He added that the evidence led by the petitioners were grossly insufficient, citing a Supreme Court decision in the case of Tonye Cole against the INEC.
Agabi said the Supreme Court’s decision in that case “is to the effect that once the evidence called is grossly insufficient, there is no evidence”.
He added: “In that case, the petitioner filed 305 witness depositions but only adopted 40 of them. The petitioner only adopted about 13.1 per cent of the witnesses’ depositions.
“In this case (the petition by the SDP and Ajaka), the depositions adopted represent just about 3.6 per cent of their witnesses’ depositions.”
The eminent lawyer said the petitioners only called 25 witnesses, stressing that in mathematical calculation of evidence, 3.6 per cent of Ajaka’s witness deposition adopted in the petition amounted to a failure and, therefore, ought to be dismissed.
Agabi argued that the petitioners’ witness, who testified about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, clearly stated that he could not guarantee whether those were the BVAS used.
He said the witness was not the maker of the inputs in the BVAS machines, adding that the evidence contained in the BVAS machines fell short of what was required under the law.
He argued that of the 25 witnesses the petitioners called, there was no polling unit agent among them.
“In other words, not a single person who observed the election was called. Besides, the star witness could not distinguish between what he heard and what he saw when questions were put to him,” Agabi said.
Ododo’s counsel, Joseph Daudu (SAN), argued similarly, faulting the competence of the petition, which he said was statute barred, having allegedly been filed out of time.
Daudu prayed the tribunal to dismiss the allegation of forgery the petitioners made against his client.
The lawyer argued that such an issue bordered on pre-election matter, which could not be raised at the state of post-election litigation.
He also argued that Section 137 of the Electoral Act, which the petitioners cited on allegations of over-voting, was inapplicable.
Lawyer to the APC, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), also urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit.
