Akwa Ibom guber: Tribunal overrules INEC on destroyed ballot papers

The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja on Wednesday September 16, 2015 overruled an objection by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the state of the ballot papers which were allegedly used during the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State.

INEC is testifying in a matter brought before the tribunal by candidate for the All Progressive Congress, Umana Umana.  Umana is challenging conduct of the election and declaration of Udom Emmanuel as winner of the poll.

Counsel to the Petitioners, Mr. Solomon Umoh, SAN had asked the Defence Witness 26, Mr. Dominic Okenna, the Electoral Officer for Onna Local Government Area, under cross examination whether he had kept the ballot papers for Onna safely and securely after the election as prescribed in exhibit 338 paragraph 1.1.2, which is the Manual for Election Officials, and he said yes.

Mr. Umoh then asked him to identify the ballot papers used for Onna local government from among the rest since the ballot papers used for the entire state was in court. Counsel  to INEC Mr. Alex Ejesieme objected to the question. He contended that the Petitioners did not plead the state of the ballot papers in their petition and that by the Practice Direction, it was wrong for the Petitioners to seek to cross examine the witness on the issue as that will amount to taking the Respondents by surprise. He further contended that if the Petitioners wanted the witness to produce the ballot papers in court they should have served him with a notice to produce same.

In their contributions, counsel to the 1st and 2nd Respondents, Messrs Paul Usoro, SAN and Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, governor Udom Emmanuel and the Peoples Democratic Party, respectively, said they had no objection to the question on the state of the ballot papers and declined to support INEC’s objection.

Responding, Mr. Umoh referred the Tribunal to paragraphs 15, 22, 27, 37 and 51 of the Petition and submitted that the issue was sufficiently pleaded and that the objection should be overruled by the Tribunal. The Tribunal asked the counsel to INEC to read the paragraphs of the petition referred to by the Petitioners counsel which he did. In its ruling, the Tribunal held that the issue had been pleaded by the Petitioners and overruled the objection.

Continuing with his cross examination, Umoh asked the INEC witness whether he has seen the inscription on exhibit 345 (1), a bag containing ballot papers, which reads Onna Local Government Area and he answered that he has seen it. He then asked him to bring out the ballot papers for Awa Ward 1 in Onna. The witness confessed that the ballot papers were mixed up and could not identify the ballot papers. This obviously contradicted his earlier testimony that he had safely secured the ballot papers unit by unit and ward by ward as stipulated in the INEC Manual for Election Officials.

 Umoh also him to look at exhibit 317 (2) which was the extra one bag of ballot papers brought out from the Tribunal’s Registry and asked him to identify which local government they were used for. The witness took out a sample of ballot paper from the bag and looked at it for a long time but could not say the local government it was used for during the election.

Finally, Mr. Umoh asked the witness to read the total number of accredited voters for the state as recorded in exhibit 317. After some hesitation, he read it which stood at 437,128. Also, he was given exhibit EE4 which is the total votes declared for the state and asked to read it out. The witness said that what he saw there is 1,158,624.