The petition filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in the 2019 election in Benue State, Emanuel Jime against the re-election of Governor Samuel Ortom of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, today suffered another major blow.
The tribunal headed by Justice Adebola Olusiyi on Thursday asked Jime’s witness not to testify because his witness statement on oath was not properly signed and commissioned.
A similar setback befell the petition last week when another star witness, Barrister Joe Abagu was rejected by the tribunal on the ground that it was not signed.
On the two occasions, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Olusiyi, pointed out that his own copy of the witness statements were not signed before the commissioner for oath.
Olusiyi said Jime’s witness statement may go the way of Abagu’s unsworn statement on oath and stated that the matter would be addressed in the final judgment.
The Chairman’s statement did not, however, go down well with the counsels to Governor Ortom and the PDP, Sebastine Hon, SAN and Chris Uche, who said they wanted to make remarks.
Consequently, the tribunal noted statements of the two counsels which it said would be addressed in their final addresses.
With the two lawyers resting their case on the Jime witness statement saga, the petitioner walked out of the witness box for another witness to be called in.
