PDP'S ELECTION TRIBUNAL CASE HIT WITH MAJOR BLOW AS KEY DOCUMENTS AND WITNESSES COME UNDER SCRUTINY
PDP’S ELECTION TRIBUNAL CASE SUFFERS MAJOR SETBACK AS DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED BY WITNESS NOT IN EXISTENCE AT THE TIME OF FILING CASE
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) case at the Edo State Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Benin City, experienced a damming blow on Thursday, during the resumed hearing, as counsel to the respondents discovered that documents submitted by witness were not in existence as at the time of filing the case. This discovery was made during the cross-examination of a witness, Mr. Igberase Mathias, by the counsel to the 1st respondents.
Asked to confirmed the documents he assented to, Mr. Igberase could not, which raised the question of credibility, prompting the counsel to probe further. It was then discovered, that the witness had filled his statement at a time the documents were not in existence. It was also discovered during cross examination, that the said witness, Mr. Igberaise Matthias claim of being the Local Government Coalition Agent for PDP in Esan North East, did not correspond with INEC report as a certain Mr.
Enabisi George was submitted to INEC as LG Coalition Agent. Asked to provide evidence of him being substituted as the coalition Agent, Mr. Igberase answered in the negative Earlier, the court witnessed a minor delay over the non-appearance of some witnesses scheduled to appear before the court, today. Raising a motion of concern, counsel to the petitioner prayed the judge to prevail on the petitioner’s team to adhere to the schedule, for ease and orderliness.
While admitting to jumping some key witnesses scheduled for today, counsel to the petitioner noted that, some of their witnesses failed to appear, forcing them to make urgent reshuffling in their witnesses. Permitting the reshuffling to stand, they were however cautioned against re-occurrence . The sudden disappearance of PDP and Asue’s witnesses has raised serious concern on the chances of the PDP and its governorship candidate in the ongoing tribunal case.
