Akwa Ibom Guber: Nsima Ekere’s Petition Is Baseless, Dismiss It, Gov Udom Emmanuel Tells Appeal Court

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has urged the Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, to dismiss the Appeal filed by defeated candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Nsima Ekere as lacking in merit and to uphold the decision of the elections petitions tribunal.

At the commencement of hearing, Monday, Governor Emmanuel, through his lead counsel Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN)reasoned that “the Tribunal was correct in holding that the Appellants had the burden of proof and did not, by the requisite standard, prove that” the election was fraught by non-compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act, guidelines/regulations and election manual.

Ikpeazu, SAN while responding to some of the issues raised by the Petitioners’ lead Counsel, J.S Okutepa,SAN held  that “their allegations that election results were obtained where elections did not hold, amounted to allegations of criminality by the Petitioners and needed the highest standard of proof.”

He held that the 11 alleged polling units witnesses presented by the Petitioners did not reach a significant standard of proof required to upturn elections that held in the entire state.

Also, the 1st Respondent argued further that it was not true that the evidences of PW41 and Pw44 were dismissed on technicalities by the tribunal as alleged by Petitioners . He said, despite pointing out that the evidences of the two witnesses ought to have been written, the tribunal went on the evaluate their evidence and dismissed them as lacking in merit.

On the issue of Exhibit PTH36, the first Respondent submitted that PW47, Dr Amadu Attai who was brought to give an assessment report of the inspected electoral documents, could not have given a credible assessment since he was a candidate of the party as deputy to the 1st petitioner. 

This according to Ikpeazu, meant that the Tribunal Court was right in dismissing his credibility and rejecting the admissibility of the Exhibits. 

“PW47 was not not a statistician but an interested party whose evidence was an negated the Evidence Act.

The Governor’s counsel also argued that the tribunal acted rightly in its pronouncement on the “admissibility of the documents relied on by the Appellants and its ultimate determination on their evidential value.” 

The Governor’s lead counsel also argued that the Evidence of the Police Officer(PW 41) related to no polling unit and as such his evidence was baseless when he said that the election in the local government where he served as DPO was peaceful.

In his argument, Ekere through his Counsel J. S. Okutepa (SAN), sought the opinion of the appellate court on 24 grounds with which he wants the elections annulled in his favour, among which is his argument that the tribunal erred in dismissing the evidence of the Essien Udim DPO Samuel Ishiek and the alleged Assistant Presiding Officer {PW 41 and PW44} who were subpoenaed witnesses.

Founded on twenty four grounds and dated October 7,2019, the filed appeal holds that the learned Trial Tribunal erred in law and that the judgment of the Tribunal is against the weight of evidence and seeks that the Court of Appeal should set aside the Tribunal judgment delivered on September 19, 2019.

“The first Petitioner, Mr. Nsima Ekere, his Deputy, Amadu Attai, Ward, Local Government and state collation agents of the Petitioners had statements on oath and oral evidences laced on hearsay. 

“Such evidences are inadmissible in Proof of the Petition as rightly contended by the Respondents’ lead Counsel. The submission of the lead Counsel of the Petitioners is therefore discountenanced and the hearsay witnesses hereby rejected and expunged”, the tribunal ruled.

Furthering on why the case should be thrashed by the Appeal court, Chief Ikpeazu argued that “from the testimonies of the witnesses called by the Appellants, there was no proof that any named agent of the 1st Respondent or anyone for that matter committed a crime.”

The Governor’s Counsel argued further that, “the alleged Polling Unit Agents called by the Appellants did  not as much as tender their appointment letters or correspondence by 2nd Appellant to the 3rd Respondent(INEC) in proof that they were indeed polling unit agents.”

“The list of 2nd Appellant’s agents accredited by INEC was tendered in evidence and those pretenders who  paraded themselves as polling unit agents were not listed,” Ikpeazu added.

The PDP and INEC, 2nd and 3rd Respondents also made a case for the dismissal of the appeal.

The PDP was represented by Tayo Oyetibo SAN and Sylva Ogwemoh,SAN.

The Appeal Court has reserved judgement to a later date.