The governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the September 19, 2020 Edo State election, Agol Ebun, has closed her case after inviting two witnesses before the election petition tribunal.
The petitioner’s counsel, Stella Agoha, told the governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Benin City that the subpoenaed witnesses, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), were yet to collate their respective documents to tender before the tribunal.
Agoha had earlier informed the tribunal that she would call her subpoenaed witnesses within the allotted time to every counsel in line with the tribunal’s pre-hearing notice.
However, when sitting resumed on Thursday, the petitioner told the Justice Yunusa Musa-led tribunal that she was reliably briefed on the witnesses’ unreadiness to present their documents before the three-man tribunal.
“I was informed that the documents are not ready. I will respectively close my case,” she said.
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The petitioner had asked the court to nullify the certificate of return issued to the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and compel the electoral body to conduct fresh election involving all the qualified candidates.
In the petition with reference number EPT/ED/GOV/05/2020 filed against INEC, PDP and Obaseki, the petitioner based her allegations on the grounds that the winner of the September 19 governorship election, Godwin Obaseki, was unqualified to contest the election.
Consequently, the tribunal adjourned to Monday, January 18, for the respondents to defend their cases.
