The Independent National Electoral Commission has closed its defense case at the Edo election petition tribunal without calling in any witnesses as promised last week. Instead, it decided to tender documents already tendered by the petitioners.
The Edo elections tribunal, sitting in Benin City, has admitted in evidence copies of INEC forms EC8B and EC8C used in the 2016 Edo governorship election for all of the 18 local government areas in the state.
The forms were presented to the court by INEC counsel, Onyinye Anumonye, without any objection by counsel to the PDP and its governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Roland Otaru, SAN. The documents were labelled exhibits by chairman of the three member tribunal, Justice Ahmed Badamasi.
The documents are apparently the same documents that the petitioners in the case, People’s Democratic Party and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu submitted in their petitions.
Reports have it that many of the youth corp members approached to testify refused, claiming that they can’t lie under oath. The same was said of the professors from Ekit State university, who superintended over the flawed election.
The implications of this, according to analysts, is that INEC is unable to defend the results that they declared, which awarded victory to Mr Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Party (APC).
The next in line to make submission is the APC, after which the judges will consider all the documents and give their verdict.
The Petitioners, thereafter, asked the Edo State Elections Petition Tribunal to declare them winner of the September 28 Gubernatorial election in Edo state because, according to facts in their petition, they scored the highest number of valid votes in the election.
