In the ongoing legal battle over the gubernatorial election in Enugu State, the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu rejected Chijioke Edeoga’s application to present the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used during the election as evidence.
Edeoga, the candidate of the Labour Party, is contesting the victory of Governor Peter Mbah in the March 18 Governorship Election.
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During the hearing, V.O Azinge, SAN, the lead counsel for the petitioner, requested the tribunal to issue another order summoning the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to bring the BVAS machines to the tribunal for inspection by the Labour Party. Azinge reminded the court that INEC, the first respondent, had previously refused to allow the petitioner to inspect the BVAS machines, thereby disregarding the court’s order.
In response, Humphrey Okoli, the lawyer representing INEC, informed the court that INEC had complied with the order by granting access to the Labour Party. He stated that the attendance register, which documented this compliance, was available in court for verification.
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Azinge objected to the position of the first respondent and requested the court to compel INEC to comply with the court’s order issued on March 23.
The Chairman of the tribunal, M.K Akano, ruled that the petitioners’ counsel should follow the necessary procedures and that the court needed to hear the application before issuing another order for the inspection of BVAS. Akano emphasized that the court had a time limit of 180 days to deliver its judgment and had other cases to address apart from the Labour Party and the PDP matter.
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During cross-examination, some witnesses for the Labour Party testified that the results from the polling units they monitored were different from the collated results. Augustine Ezeme and Solomon Attah, both polling agents for the Labour Party, stated that the results at the polling units in Udenu and Igboeze North council areas did not match the collated results at the council areas.
