By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The counsel to Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe in the senatorial elections petition tribunal, Mba Ukweni, SAN, has said that the immediate past governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, can not say he won the senatorial elections and the same time seek the nulification of the election.
Jarigbe’s counsel argued that Ayade cannot be said to have won the elections and at the same Seeks the nullification if the election he claimed to have won.
Ukweni made the remarks while presenting his final address to the tribunal, sitting in Calabar and chaired by Justice M. A. Sambo.
Jarigbe’s counsel stated that the case instituted against the election of his client by the former governor requires no opposition to fail.
Ukweni told the tribunal that the grounds of the petition and the reliefs sought are dead on arrival.
He said, “Ben Ayade cannot claim to have won the elections and at the same time seeking for it’s nullification.”
Lampooning the former state governor for seeking to be returned winner of the election and at the same time claiming that the election is null and void is an inconsistency that is bizarre and strange.
He said that the petitioners called 34 witnesses and complained of results in 420 poling units and even if the respondent calls no witness, the case of the petitioners failed on its own and requires no opposition to fail.
Ukweni maintained that the evidence by the witnesses contradicts their written statement on oath and cannot stand.
He added, “The written statement on oath of the witnesses contained complaints of corrupt practices, violence, vote buying, inducement of voters and that these are serious criminal allegations and there is no single report from any security agency before the court.”
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Habib Lawal asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition in it’s entirety.
Lawal stated that before any election is invalidated, it must be on the basis of substantial non-compliance with extant laws guiding the conduct of such election.
Counsel to INEC stressed that in this instant case, there is evidence that where there are 874 polling units in Cross River North senatorial district, adding that the petitioners disputes results in 367 of them and called only 36 polling units agents l, which is of terrible insignificance.
Lawal told the tribunal that the commission did not withhold the BIVAS machine and never in the pleadings of the petitioners did they list the BVAS machine as one of the evidence to be relied upon.
In his remarks, the PDP counsel, Ruben Egwuaba, told the court that all the witnesses called by the petitioners pleaded the presidential election results and not the senatorial elections results, stressing that this makes their case sui generis.
Earlier, counsel to the petitioners, Professor Mike Ozekhome, SAN, prayed the tribunal to uphold their petition and also tongue lash INEC for committing serial acts of illegalities and seeking to take benefit and advantage from it.
Ozekhome stressed that the same INEC that gave them form EC8A is the same party arguing it should have been EC81 and that they used presidential instead of senatorial form.
