The Edo elections tribunal sitting in Benin City has admitted in evidence copies of INEC forms EC8B and EC8C used in the 2016 Edo governorship election, for all of the eighteen local government areas in the state.
The forms were presented to the court by INEC counsel Onyinye Anumonye, without any objection by counsel to the PDP and its governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Roland Otaru, SAN. The documents were labelled exhibits by chairman of the three member tribunal, Justice Ahmed Badamasi.
The documents are apparently the same documents that the petitioners in the case, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu (POI) submitted in their petitions.
It can be reported that many of the youth corp members approached to testify refused, claiming that they can’t lie under oath. Even the professors from Ekiti university who superintended over the flawed election also failed to come to court to testify.
The implications of this according to pundits is that INEC is unable to defend the results that they declared, which awarded victory to Mr Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Party (APC).
The next in line to make submission is the APC, after which the judges will consider all the documents and give their verdict.
The Petitioners have asked the Edo State Elections Petition Tribunal to declare them winner of the September 28 Gubernatorial election in Edo state because, according to facts in their petition, they scored highest number of valid votes in the election.