Lawani calls first witness as collation agent make tactical maneuver

Following the riot act read to Chief Stephen Lawani and his legal team during the ruling on one of his applications on Monday 8th July that “the tribunal will no longer entertain any other application aimed at delaying a petition that is time bound”, the petition came back to life today when Chief Lawani called his first witness.

The day started on the usual note when the court convened at 9:00am as Lawani’s counsel said their documents were not ready and asked for the case to be stepped down till 2pm. Counsel to Distinguished Senator Abba Moro said he would be busy at a sister tribunal as from 3pm and so the case was fixed for 12 noon.

When the Court reconvened at about 12:35pm, Mr Ogaba Benedict Unogwu, said to be a retired police officer was called to the witness box as the first petitioners’ witness.
Mr Ogaba said he hails from Ai-Oga clan in Ulayi Ward of Ado LGA.
He told the tribunal that he would want “collation agent” in his written statement to be changed to “supervisory/collation agent” and “Oju” changed to “Ado”
Barrister Ikonne, counsel to Senator Abba Moro objected to the proposed amendments and sited section 114 and 118 of the Evidence Act.
He said the position of the law is that once an affidavit is sworn, it cannot be altered without being re-sworn.

Wanting the case to go on despite the technicalities, Justice A.A Adeleye, Chairman of the tribunal asked that the change be effected and the case continued.

Mr Ogaba was led in evidence by Mr Okpale, counsel to Chief Lawani. He tendered Certified True Copies (CTO) of voters register and Form EC8.1 of 8 Council Wards comprising 64 polling units to justify his claim that there was no accreditation of voters and/or over voting.

During cross-examination by counsel to Senator Abba Moro, Mr Ogaba said he spent about 10 minutes in “substantial number of polling units” and did not witness any accreditation.
Mr Ikonne put to him that accreditation could have taken place after he left but he said no.

Counsel to the PDP, Mr C.T Mue asked Mr Ogaba if he has any evidence before the tribunal to show that the APC appointed him a supervisory agent but he said he has none.
Mr Mue told him that going by the electoral act and the INEC manual for the elections, there’s no place for a “supervisory agent” but Mr Ogaba said it’s not true – without any legal backing.
When asked by Mr Mue to tell the tribunal the scores of APC in Ado LG as the collation agent, Mr Ogaba said he doesn’t know it off hand.

Counsel to INEC asked the witness if INEC conducted an election in Ado on February 23rd, he said the answer is yes and no – which the tribunal said was not a satisfactory answer. He was further asked before he stepped down by the INEC counsel if he has another result contrary to the one declared by INEC but said he has none.

Earlier, in what looks like a “tactical maneuver”, Lawani’s prime witness and collation centre agent Mr Akor Ikwuoche had announced his withdrawal from politics in a Facebook post on Sunday night. He cited threat to his life from within as his reason.

It will be recalled that additional witness statement from Mr Ikwuoche was at the centre of the application which the tribunal confined to the dust bin in a ruling on Monday 8th July. It is left to be seen if he will still show up as a witness as he was conspicuously absent from court today.

The case was adjourned to Tuesday 16th July for continuation of hearing.