JUST IN: INEC fails to present witness to defend Mbah’s election victory

OpinionPoll 

  19 July 2023

Port Harcourt By Comr. Isaac (NigeriaOpinion)

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, failed to present any witness to defend the allegation by candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chijioke Edeoga, that the 2023 governorship election that produced Peter Mbah as governor was manipulated.

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Enugu, had resumed its proceedings to enable the electoral body to call its first witness to justify its declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the governorship election that held on March 18.

However, when the case was called up for hearing, INEC, through its team of lawyers led by Humphrey Okoli, told the court that the commission had decided not to bring any witness.

Okoli said: “The first respondent (INEC) is mandated to open the case. My Lord, after a thorough review of the case, we have decided not to bring in any witness”

Read Also; Court upholds Kogi governorship candidate Ododo’s nomination

YouTube Channel

Error loading media

Copy video url

Play / Pause

Mute / Unmute

Report a problem

Language

Share

Vidverto Player

He said, “We are inclined to open our case today. However, we will need two hours to present our witnesses”.

Edeoga’s legal team led by Adegboyega Awomolo, did not oppose the application for an adjournment.

Consequent upon the development, the tribunal, deferred the case for two hours to enable the party to produce its first witness by 11 am today.