By TAIYE AGBAJE

Mr Anthony Aziegbemin, the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo, on Monday, said their petition against the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja was documentary based.

Aziegbemin stated this while briefing the newsmen in Abuja shortly after the PDP and its candidate in the Sept. 21 governorship poll, Mr Asue Ighodalo, closed their case against the APC and Gov. Monday Okpebholo, after calling 19 witnesses.

?We think the case is pretty straight forward, we think it is documentary based, we think it is specific, we think the judiciary will give it some judicial cognisance of what we tendered before them.

?We believe that they (tribunal) have all they need from us and all what we should produce, I think we have given it to them.

?And we expect them to look at them and see how it goes. But suffices to say that it is not a petition as we used to have it in the country where you call a lot of witnesses.

?We didn?t need to call a lot of witnesses, we called the witnesses that we needed, to prove our case and make our case more solid,? he said.

Aziegbemin, however, expressed surprise that INEC objected to admissibility of BVAS it was subpoenaed to produce as evidence before the tribunal from 133 polling units of the state.

?Is it not strange? You conducted an election, you certified documents for the petitioners, petitioners want to tender this documents and you said you were objecting to it, that you will give reasons later.

?I can understand Okpebholo and APC objecting, but for INEC to object to its own documents being tendered in court, I think it is strange.

?So that gives us and Nigerians something to think about.

?Why will INEC oppose the documents it certified to the petitioners to be tendered in the open court? I think the tribunal will look into that and see why they are objecting, though they said they will give reasons at the address stage but it is strange. It doesn?t add up.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a Senior Technical Officer in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)?s ICT Department, Mr Anthony Itodo, had on Thursday, Jan. 30, tendered 148 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), machines.

Also, INEC, on Monday, tendered an additional five BVAS machines before the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel of the Edo Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

However, INEC, APC and Okpebholo, who are respondents in the petition, through their counsel, objected to the tendering of the machines. (NAN)

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