The Edo State Governorship Election Tribunal on Thursday admitted more documents as evidence, while four additional witnesses from the Peoples Democratic Party testified, alleging irregularities in some polling units across Esan North East, Oredo, Esan South East, and Esan Central Local Government Areas during the 2024 governorship election.
The development brought the total number of PDP witnesses to 10 in the petition filed by the party and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the election.
Testifying at the resumed hearing of Petition EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, Mr. Igbarase Matthias, the PDP’s Esan North East Local Government Area Collation Agent, requested the tribunal to admit his witness statement, deposed on October 11, 2024. Matthias claimed over-voting occurred in nine polling units within his area, referencing exhibits PCB 40 to PCB 48 of Form EC25B series.
He stated, “In arriving at my statement on oath, I relied on certified true copies of INEC’s Voters Register, Forms EC25B’s, EC8A’s, INEC election manual booklet, screenshots of IREV copies of Form EC8A, BIVAS accreditation report, and BIVAS extract being CTCs of Form EC8C, after personally examining them.”
Matthias tendered IREV-certified true copies of results sheets obtained from INEC, duplicate polling unit results sheets of Form EC8A, and his party agent card as evidence.
The 54-year-old witness specifically mentioned over-voting in polling unit 011 and said, “I am aware that the uploading of results into the IREV takes place at the polling unit level.”
Under cross-examination by INEC’s lead counsel, Kanu Agabi, Matthias admitted, “My job as LGA agent of my party in the election did not entail me handling the BIVAS during the election.”
He also acknowledged that PDP unit and ward agents signed the election result sheets, adding, “I did not function as unit agent or ward agent for my party in the election.”
Aigbe Ighodaro Lucky, the PDP agent for Oredo Local Government Area, told the court there was over-voting in 66 polling units in his area and alleged that INEC entered incorrect scores in favour of the APC.
He said, “I relied on INEC documents to arrive at my statement on oath and adopted the same as evidence in the petition.”
Ighodaro further stated, “There were no prior recordings of serial numbers of sensitive materials deployed for the election in the local government in INEC’s Form EC25B.”
During cross-examination, he admitted, “My Lord, I did not examine any BIVAS machine used for the election all through the process during my work as PDP local government area collation agent in Oredo. But I examined the documents given to me by my party.”
Another witness, Adekunle Oboh, the PDP’s Esan Central Local Government Area Collation Agent, testified about irregularities in 23 polling units.
He told the court, “There were no prior recordings of serial numbers of sensitive materials deployed to some polling units in the area in Form EC25B.”
Oboh admitted that polling unit results sheets were signed by PDP agents up to the ward level before he signed Form EC8C.
He said, “All the Forms EC8A (result sheets) were counter-signed by INEC presiding officers.”
He added that his deposition was based on documents obtained from INEC by his party.
Similarly, Wilson Ibhawa, the PDP’s Esan South East Local Government Area Collation Agent, alleged irregularities in five polling units, stating, “There were no prior recordings of serial numbers of sensitive materials used in the election in Form EC25B.”
Respondents’ counsel objected to the admissibility of the documents tendered by the witnesses but reserved their reasons for the address stage.
Justice Wilfred Kpochi, Chairman of the Tribunal, provisionally admitted the documents into evidence pending arguments from respondents’ counsel.
The hearing was adjourned to Friday, January 24, 2025, for continuation.