Crusaderhotnews
By Gidigba Group
We watched, with utter awe and dismay, the crass ignorance displayed by APC acting Chairman in Edo State, Emperor Jarret Tenebe and their supposed legal adviser, Pst. Steven Okoror, while addressing the Press, after APC, the 3rd respondent, abruptly closed their case at the election petitions tribunal, sitting in Abuja.
While we understand their frustration towards the five (5) witnesses, which both Sen. Monday Okpebholo and APC legal teams presented, whose testimony further strengthened PDP/Asue-Ogie petition, when they admitted before the tribunal to over-voting and non-prior recording of sensitive materials before commencement of poll, their desperation to salvage an already battered image before the public and collapsed defence in the tribunal of a stolen mandate has exposed their inexcusable limitations.
Tenebe and his co-travellers latest resort to allusion of dumping of documents before the tribunal, begs many questions and this includes:
1. Which documents did the petitioners used in leading their nineteen (19) witnesses before the tribunal?
2. Which documents did the respondents—INEC/APC/Okpebholo, used in cross-examining the nineteen (19) witnesses called by the petitioners?
3. Which documents did INEC/APC/Okpebholo used in leading their five (5) witnesses before the tribunal?
4. Which documents did the petitioners used in cross-examining the respondents' five (5) witnesses? The Certified True Copies of INEC documents and BVAS before the court, of course.
Till close of proceedings at the tribunal, APC and Sen. Monday Okpebholo's legal team, failed to produce a single document to support their defence even when they had unchallenged and unhindered access to INEC offices both in Benin and Abuja.
INEC Certified True Copies of election documents and materials, including BVAS machines are central to resolving election disputes; this is the new innovation contained in the electoral act 2022, which forms part of the overall effort to bring sanity and ensure transparency in our electoral process.
The importance of this thinking by those who birthed this idea is that, where there are infractions during the election, it will be apparent in the face of the documents used; this is the reason, APC/Okpebholo's legal team deliberately chose not to tender a single document during the hearing at tribunal.
Whereas the Certified True Copies of INEC documents and BVAS before the tribunal will continue to be a nightmare to Jarŕet Tenebe and APC, it will remain a vital tool to unravelling the true winner of the September 21st, 2024, governorship election in Edo State; there is no controversy that it was Asue lghodalo that won the election.
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