POLITICS
El-Rufai vs Ashiru: What happened in court on Monday
The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday presented 17 witnesses out of the 685 it lined
up as it opened its case against the declaration of Gov. Nasir El-Rufai as
winner of the March 9, 2019 Governorship election in Kaduna State.
The PDP and its
Governorship candidate in the poll, Alhaji Isah Ashiru are asking the state
Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the election of El-Rufai and
declare its candidate the winner, having scored the majority of valid votes
cast during the election.
The petitioners,
who joined INEC, APC and El-Rufai in the case, alleged that the poll was
characterised by massive rigging, ballot box stuffing and violence in 110 wards
in 12 local government areas of the state.
The LGAs all of
which the PDP lost to the APC as declared by INEC, include Birnin Gwari, Giwa,
Igabi, Ikara, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Kubau, Kudan, Lere, Sabon Gari, Soba
and Zaria.
The party said it
had assembled 685 witnesses, mostly party agents and returning officers it
assigned during the poll.
The PDP, at the
resumed hearing on Monday, submitted names of 17 persons as first batch of
witnesses who began testifying before the tribunal.
The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 684 PDP witnesses are expected to testify before
the tribunal within 14 days.
Earlier, the
Ibrahim Bako-led Tribunal had admitted in evidence various documents presented
by the petitioners.
Elisha Kurah (SAN),
Counsel to the petitioners, had presented certified true copies (CTC) of forms
from polling units, ward collation centres, and local government collation
Centres obtained from INEC.
Kurah also
submitted INEC documents allegedly used to declare the winner of the March 9
election to the tribunal.
He told newsmen
that the forms allegedly contained discrepancies that would be proved before
the tribunal.
Kurah said: “the
forms we tendered, were forms that INEC used during the election.
”Some of the forms
were not signed by the agents, some were not stamped and, you find handwriting
of one person on all the forms. I mean one person wrote everything in those
forms we have presented.
“The Tribunal has
accepted all the documents we presented and addmitted same in evidence.
“There are lots of
differences between those INEC forms we presented to the Tribunal and that of
the PDP agents,” he said.
The Counsel said: ”
the witnesses have been assembled to speak on the forms and the lack of
genuineness of the forms we collected from INEC.”
According to him,
the witnesses would present genuine copies of the documents as they testify.
NAN reports that
the witnesses are appearing based on the documents the Tribunal had earlier
admitted.
Dr Musa Aliyu,
Counsel to INEC said the commission had raised objection to some of the
documents and would submit details of their objections when it address the
Tribunal.
“The witnesses are
coming to testify what happened during the March 9 poll.”
Also, Ibrahim Bawa
(SAN), Counsel to the APC said his clients would present their objections in
the course of the proceedings.
Bawa said the APC
would also bring its witnesses to the Tribunal to prove that the petitioners
had no case.
The Tribunal has
adjourned to Tuesday, June 18 to continue, after taking three witnesses from
Zaria LG.
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