Counsel for the petitioners, Chief Gordy Uche, SAN, on Friday, told the three-member panel of Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal headed by Justice A. L. Ogunmoye during the pre-hearing session in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Mr Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the state’s last conducted governorship poll.
Nwifuru garnered a total of 199,131 votes cast across the 13 local governments in the state to defeat his closest challenger, Ifeanyi Odii who got a total of 80,191 votes to become second.
Odii and PDP, who are 1st and 2nd petitioners, had challenged the declaration of Nwifuru as the winner of the election.
In the petition marked: EPT/EB/02/2023 dated April 6 and filed April 7 by their team of lawyers led by Chris Uche, SAN, they had sued INEC, Ogbonna Francis Nwifuru and the APC as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
The petitioners maintained that Nwifuru did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast during the election.
They claimed that, during the election process, there was substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Aside from praying for the court to declare him as the valid winner of the gubernatorial election, Odii is seeking the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return that was issued to the governor by INEC.
The petitioners also argued that Nwifuru did not validly resign from the PDP before he was nominated as the governorship candidate of the APC.
They cited a subsisting judgement of a High Court in Ebonyi, delivered by Justice Henry Njoku, which they said held that Nwifuru and other lawmakers in the state who purportedly defected to the APC, were still members of the PDP.
But Governor Nwifuru and the APC disagreed with the petitioners, urging the tribunal to dismiss the petition in its entirety.
Upon resuming pre-hearing on Friday, Mr. Gordy Uche, who appeared for the petitioners, informed the panel that, based on its directive, a schedule for trial had been prepared.
“On the order of calling witnesses, for petitioners, we intend to call not more than 60 witnesses in proving our case,” Uche revealed.
The senior lawyer said that the petitioners would require not more than three weeks to prove their case against the APC and its candidate’s victory in the election.
He said they intended to call experts and subpoena witnesses.
In response, INEC’s lawyer, Mr. Oladipo Tolani, informed the tribunal that the commission had only one witness to call.
Tolani, in reaction to the petitioners’ proposal to call 60 witnesses, prayed the panel to direct them to streamline the number of witnesses in order to guide against acts of repetition.
Nwifuru’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, said if the petitioners were calling 60 witnesses, they too would be inclined to call the same number of witnesses.
“If they are calling 60 witnesses; if need be, we are also calling 60 witnesses,” he said.
Ikpeazu said that they would require 10 days to call their witnesses.
“We will call experts and subpoena witnesses.
“We will not go beyond what they have done. We require not less than 10 days to call the 60 witnesses if the need be,” he added.
APC’s counsel, Abdul Ibrahim, SAN, adopted all the submissions of Ikpeazu.
“Our position is the same as that of the 2nd respondent.
“That is if the need be, sir.
“We also require 10 days to call our witnesses,” he said.
On the timing for presenting witnesses, while the petitioners proposed 30 minutes for the examination-in-chief of star or expert witnesses, they also proposed 30 minutes for cross-examination and five minutes for re-examination.
“For other witnesses, we propose 10 minutes for examination-in-chief, 10 minutes for cross-examination and five minutes for re-examination,” Uche said.
Tolani argued that all witnesses should be allotted 10 minutes each, including the star witnesses, during the examination-in-chief questioning since all of them would also fill witness depositions.
He said the witnesses ought to adopt the witness depositions to fast track proceedings.
The lawyer also proposed that 15 minutes be allotted for cross-examination and five minutes for re-examination.
Ikpeazu, on his part, proposed 15 minutes for the examination-in-chief of star witnesses or witness subpoena; 30 minutes for cross-examination of star witnesses; and five minutes for re-examination.
“With respect to other witnesses, we propose five minutes for the evidence-in-chief since it relates with adoption of witness depositions.
“We propose 10 minutes for cross-examination and three minutes for re-examination,” he said.
Ibrahim adopted Ikpeazu’s position.
The parties, however, agreed on the tendering of INEC’s certified true documents from the bar as proposed by the petitioners.
They further agreed that objections to any documents should be taken at the point of tendering such documents, while the reason for objecting should be stated in the final address.
They also agreed that all parties should file their issues for determination within seven days and leave these for the panel’s decision.
The tribunal adjourned the matter until June 8 for the continuation of pre-hearing.
NAN
