The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, admitted as exhibits the petitioners' report of inspection of election materials used for the conduct of the April 11, 2015 governorship election in the state.
The All Progressives Congress and its candidate in the poll, Chief Umana Umana, had filed their petition before the Justice Sadiq Umar-led tribunal to challenge the declaration of Governor Udoh Emmauel of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the election.
The petitioners' researcher and data analyst, Mr. Akin Davids, tendered the report comprising bundle of documents bound separately in 15 parts after he adopted his witness statements on oath dated August 10, and August 21, 2015 as his testimony.
The report, labeled A01, was accompanied by 14 appendices.
Davids, who was the petitioners' 49th witness, was led by their lawyer, Mr. Dayo Akinlaja (SAN).
The tribunal admitted the documents and marked them as Exhibits 336(1) to (15).
The various counsel for the respondents to the petition, comprising Paul Usoro (SAN), representing Emmanuel; Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), representing INEC, and Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) for the PDP, said they would reserve their objection to the documents till the final written address stage.
Justice Umar, while admitting the report as exhibit in his ruling, affirmed the right of the respondents to raise objection to the documents later in the hearing of the petition.
Shortly after the report was admitted as exhibits, the petitioners' lawyer led Davids to identify the various election materials earlier tendered before the tribunal, which he alluded to in his witness statements on oath.
According to Akinlaja, the identified election materials, including the Forms EC8 series, constituted the documents Davids used for the analysis in his report and that he made reference to them in his witness statements on oath dated August 10 and August 21, 2015.
The respondents' counsel were about to start cross-examining the respondent as of the time of filing this report.
SOURCE :: PUNCH NG
Original source: News (Nigeria) :: Akwa Ibom tribunal admits Umana's forensic report.
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