Legal Adviser of Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jerry Egemba, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Cyprian Akaolisa, have sharply disagreed over admissibility of the result evidence earlier tendered by the Candidate of the APC in the last gubernatorial election in the state, Sen. Hope Uzodinma.
This was just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) closed its case at the Governership/State Assembly Petitions Tribunal, at the weekend, without calling any witness.
Jerry Egemba said that it was not true that the electoral umpire either accepted or conceded to the result evidence of Sen. Hope Uzodinma presented at the Tribunal.
Said he, “It is not true that INEC, has accepted the evidence presented by Hope Uzodinma and the Police.
READ ALSO: Lagos govt. allays fears over arrest of 123 suspects by Task Force
“I tell you INEC, has objected to those evidence both in the tribunal and in the open and, so INEC having already objected to the results does not need to call any witness because they were the ones who conducted the results and therefore have the original results regardless of what someone has claimed”.
However, APC’s legal adviser, Cyprain Akaolisa, said that INEC has ‘conceded’ on the matter regarding its failure to come up with any witness to challenge the results evidence said to have been omitted in the original results of the elections.
According to Akaolisa, “INEC is suppose to call their witnesses, but INEC failed to do that and closed their case and therefore leaving that result evidence as presented to the Tribunal by our governorship candidate Sen. Hope Uzodinma unchallenged.
“Although, it will not be right to say INEC, has accepted but for the fact they did not call evidence they have conceded.
“The use of the word accepted is different from the use of the word conceded.
“So, what it means is that INEC has not contradicted the evidence presented to the tribunal of the 388 polling unit results that are now the issue.
“The serial numbers which fall in the same materials which the INEC, distributed.”
It would be recalled that Hope Uzodinma, candidate of APC in the March 9 gubernatorial polls in the state, is praying the Tribunal to declare him the winner of the Gubernatorial polls.