The Independent National Electoral Commission has
closed its defence in the petition filed by the Peoples
Democratic Party and its candidate , Pastor Osagie Ize -
Iyamu , at the Edo State Governorship Election
Petitions Tribunal , without calling any witness .

The petitioners are challenging INEC ’s declaration of
the candidate of the All Progressives Congress ,
Godwin Obaseki , as winner of the September 28 poll
and had listed them in the substantive petition as the
first to third respondents , respectively.

At the resumption of hearing on Monday, counsel to
INEC , Onyinye Anumonye , however , tendered no
fewer than 200 copies of the ward results ( Form
EC 8 B ) for the remaining 17 local government areas,
all of which were admitted in evidence and marked as
exhibits .

Anumonye also sought to tender a supplement to the
2015 guidelines and regulation for the conduct of the
election .

Counsel to the petitioners , Roland Otaru , objected to
the admissibility of the document, which he said
ought to have been tendered by a witness at the
witness box.

But the Chairman of the three- man panel , Justice
Ahmed Badamasi , admitted in evidence and marked
the certified true copy of the document as exhibit
1 R 022 .

INEC had used five out of the 10 days allotted to it by
the tribunal to open its defence had been expected to
call its witnesses .

But its counsel said that it would amount to a waste of
the tribunal ’s time to call witnesses to support the case
of the first respondent .

Anumonye explained that, having reviewed the
evidence presented thus far, it was the position of the
first respondent that it had sufficiently established a
defence to the petition, through the cross - examination
of the petitioners ’ witnesses whose statements under
cross - examination supported its case and ,
particularly , the documents tendered as exhibits .
“ We , therefore, consider it an unnecessary waste of
the tribunal ’s precious time to call witnesses who
would merely repeat evidences that it had already
elicited under cross - examination ,” he added .

http://www.punchng.com/‎edo-tribunal-inec-closes-defence-tenders-ward-results-as-evidence/