The All Progressives Congress April 2015 governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom state, Umana Umana, will be attesting before the election petitions tribunal on Thursday, August 20, 2015.
Umana said this over the weekend, adding that the prosecution will also be presenting its key witnesses during the testimonies at the tribunal. He said among those expected to give evidence is the forensic team which inspected elections materials used for the polls, Vanguard reports.
The APC candidate is contesting the emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) candidate, Emmanuel Udom, as winner of the last gubernatorial election. He noted that his legal team will also be moving what he called a ripped motion for extension time to present additional witnesses.
In a statement, Umana said he was ready to testify before the tribnal. He maintained that elections did not hold in the state stressing that even in his own polling unit, there was no election during the governorship election in April this year.
According to him, he and his supporters were denied the opportunity of casting votes. He added that the same thing happened in other parts of the state. The election materials were carted away even before the process commenced.
Umanna said that the party would giving the INEC the register for all polling units in the state including the Card Reader in order to prove that there was no elections held in the state
However, Umana has also deplored efforts being made to destroy evidence in the case. He said “someone directed that the booklets of ballot papers used during the sham election be unbounded and detached into single ballot papers to show that that they were actually used for voting, which was not the case. Infact, the exercise commenced with the detachment of booklets used for Etim Ekpo Local Government Area (LGA) of the state before information leaked.
“And when that happened, supporters of the APC mobilized to the INEC office where they sighted people running out of the premises upon their arrival. Before a team of policemen and DSS operatives arrived the premises the culprits had escaped, reportedly on a tip off by compromised police officers assigned to the premises.
“Our forensic team was also frustrated during inspection exercise; as most of the election materials were destroyed. Some people went as far as pouring water on the materials,” he said. He however added: “No matter what they do, we have adequate evidence to prove that no election held. Our people were on ground, so everything that transpired was recorded. I am optimistic that with what we have, we will win at the tribunal”.
The guber candidates said that he will keep pursuing the case to a logical end based his respect for the rule of law.
Meanwhile, the tribunal case has been getting a lot of attention from Nigeria’s social media community.
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