Delta tribunal dismisses Okowa’s opposition to INEC’s documents

The Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the motions brought before it by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission in their bid to stop the admission of INEC’s documents before the tribunal.

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The motions were to object to the admissibility of election documents tendered by INEC in the petition of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, who is challenging the declaration of Okowa as the winner of the April 11 governorship poll in the state.
Counsel for Okowa, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN); lawyer for PDP, Timothy Kehinde (SAN); and INEC’s counsel, Damien Dodo (SAN), had objected to the admissibility of two documents, tendered by Head, Information and Communication Technology, INEC, Abuja at the tribunal.
The tribunal had earlier issued a subpoena, compelling INEC to tender documents used in the conduct of the April 11 poll in the state governorship election.
Izinyon objected to the tendering of the two witnesses’ statements on oath by INEC, arguing that the one of
the documents (exhibit P.1) was different from that the one that was to be tendered.

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He argued that section 104(2) of the Evidence Act provides that a witness statement on Oath must have an engraved stamp, signature and designation of the officer and name superimposed on the document, saying the document that was to be tendered did not fulfill the provisions of this section.
The senior advocate urged the tribunal not to admit the documents.
Counsel for the PDP, Kehinde, in aligning with Izinyon’s submissions, argued that the exhibits P.1 (a) was not listed and could not be tendered at this stage of hearing in the petition, adding that the document was not filed along with the petition and was not pleaded.
Dodo, in his own argument, said, “I wholly adopt the objections as canvassed by the first and second respondents. It is an issue of law and we are bound by the law especially by the Supreme Court.”
Counsel for the APC, Mr. Thompson Okpoko (SAN), argued that the documents by INEC were pleaded as contained in paragraphs four of the petitioner’s reply to the first respondent’s reply to the petition.
“I am at a loss as to how the respondents can claim they were taken by surprise. At the outset, we stated that we are going to rely on polling unit by polling unit report. We listed the said documents. The object of pleadings is hereby satisfied. Both documents comply strictly with section 104(2) of the Evidence Act,” he added.
Okpoko said frontloading the documents was unnecessary.
“That is not necessary as the document are in the custody of INEC and INEC is a party to this suit. Can we now go to our opponent to sign witness statement on oath? We should be realistic. When the person you have subpoenaed and is to come to court to present the documents, it needs not to be frontloaded or listed. I humbly submit that these documents be admitted,” the SAN said.
Delivering his ruling on the three motions on Tuesday in Asaba, tribunal chairman, Justice Nasiru Gunmi, overruled the respondents, saying the documents satisfied the requirements of law
Justice Gunmi said, “‘We have examined this application on the face of the document tendered and we are satisfied that the document satisfies the requirement of Section 104 (2) of the Evidence Act to justify the admission of these documents. We therefore overrule the objection to the admission of this document.”