The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urge the Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State to dismiss the appeal filed by Mr Nsima Ekere, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the declaration of Governor Udom Emmanuel as the winner of the 9th March 2019 governorship election in Akwa Ibom state by INEC.

Counsel to INEC, Sylva Ogwemoh SAN made the submission at the Court of Appeal while addressing the court on the position of the commission concerning the petition

He said that the court should uphold the tribunal ruling by dismissing the petition as the 1st respondent was duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast at the election, and that Ekere and APC who are the appellants have not established any cogent, compelling, and convincing evidence and reason cognizable in law why the election should be invalidated.

He argued that the Court of Appeal should follow the verdict of the lower tribunal which based its ruling on the on the two issues framed by the appellant on grounds of pleadings and evidence adduced having completely abandoned the issue of corrupt practice.

He drew the attention of the court to the fact that it is trite that a party who seeks declaratory reliefs are bound to prove its case even when the defendant admits all the claims. And that the burden of proof in negative assertion is on the appellants to prove their allegations beyond all reasonable doubt.

Ogwemoh maintained that when the issues have to do with over - voting and lack of proper accreditation, voter register and complete card reader report are required along with the testimonies of polling unit agents who were directly present at the place of the election.

According to him, "As rightly found by the tribunal, in over 2980 polling units, the appellants only called a miserable 43 witnesses that were mostly non - polling unit agents who only gave hearsay evidence of what they were told. This could not prove the allegations in the petition because the quantity of witnesses called in election petition is as important as the quality of such witnesses. And election petition being sui generis in nature, the principle that mandates polling unit by polling unit proves requires that the right quantity of witnesses be called in prove of allegations made in the petition".

Based on the stated facts above which formed the grounds of tribunal ruling, it is very clear that the Court of Appeal ruling will not be different from that of the lower tribunal since there were already established precedence by the supreme court as stated in the tribunal judgment.

With the adoption of final written addresses by parties in the petition today, the Court of Appeal is set and ready to give judgement.

SOURCE: https://www.wetinhappen.com.ng/nsima-ekeres-appeal-lacks-convincing-evidence-inconsistent-inec/