September 12, (THEWILL) – The Cross River State National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal has upheld the election of Godwin Offiono.
Godwin Offiono, a People’s Democratic Party National Assembly member, representing Ogoja and Yala Federal constituency, was declared winner through a unanimous decision.
The tribunal, headed by Justice O. A. Adeniyi, held that the petitioners have failed to prove their allegations and the issues set out in the petition have been resolved against them.
Justice Adeniyi also ordered the parties to bear their respective costs in the suit, which is marked EPT/CA/HR/02/2023.
The petitioners in the suit, Jude Ngaji and the All Progressives Congress (APC), had filed a suit in the tribunal on the 17th of March, 2023.
The petitioners sole ground for the petition was the invalidation of the February 25 national assembly elections on grounds of corrupt practices and non compliance with the provisions of the electoral act.
They also sought some reliefs from the tribunal including an order cancelling the elections, order cancelling the certificate of return issued to the first respondent (Godwin Offiono), order for fresh elections or in the alternative, order cancelling elections in 39 polling units.
The tribunal, in reaching its conclusion, held that “the petitioners failed to substantiate their allegation of improper accreditation as contained in paragraph 14 to 17 of their petition.
“Petitioners allegation of over-voting in only four polling units does not affect the overall outcome of the election and it is not the duty of the tribunal to fish for evidence.
“The petitioners have failed to discharge the burden that the respondent colluded to allot votes”, the tribunal held.
On the disenfranchisement of voters, the tribunal maintained that it is only the disenfranchised voters, who ought to give evidence of their disenfranchisement in court.
It further held that in the absence of the testimony of the disenfranchised voters, it cannot be said that the disenfranchisement had taken place.
In all, the petitioners called 18 witnesses and presented 404 documents comprising largely Certified True copies of election materials, while the first respondent called fifteen witnesses and presented 47 documents.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
