Delta State governor's defence suffers setback at election tribunal

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa's defence at the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Asaba, have suffered a setback after the tribunal dismissed the governor's prayer to stop INEC from giving oral evidence.

According to a report by The Punch, Okowa's plea to the election tribunal panel was dismissed by Justice Gunmi, who ruled on three motions moved by Okowa and PDP's representatives saying that the subpoena to the INEC was not the business of Okowa or the PDP.

In dismissing Okowa’s motions, the tribunal chairman said the subpoena issued to INEC was for the concerned official to give both oral evidence and tender relevant documents before the panel.

'The first respondent (Okowa) and second respondent (PDP) were not served the subpoena and have no right to complain about and cannot dictate which witnesses to call to prove their case,” the judge added.

'The sum total of what we have been saying is that the respondents/applicants have not shown any good reason why the subpoena issued on the 12 of August in this petition should be set aside. They have not shown that it was issued without jurisdiction thereby making the issuance a nullity or that it was obtained by fraud thereby making its setting aside ex debito justitiae possible.

'The net effect of this is that the applications are liable to be dismissed and they are hereby dismissed,” Justice Gunmi said.

Okowa had been dragged to the election tribunal by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor, over the declaration of Okowa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the poll, by INEC, as the winner of the governorship election.

Okowa, PDP and INEC have earlier moved three motions before the tribunal, seeking to stop INEC from giving oral evidence, aside tendering documents relating to the poll.

The Justice Gunmi-led three-member tribunal had, on August 12, 2015, issued a subpoena to the Head of ICT Department in INEC and INEC to appear before the tribunal to give evidence as requested by Emerhor and the APC, who are the petitioners.