Gov. Ortom defeated Jime with a margin of 89,000 votes – Witness

By David Mzer

A witness, Mr Alex Adum Friday August 16th, 2019 told the Benue State governorship election petition tribunal that Governor Samuel Ortom defeated Mr Emmanuel Jime of the All Progressives Congress, APC, with a margin of 89,318 votes.

Answering questions from counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission,Offiong Offiong, SAN, who asked him to calculate the difference between the votes scored by all the parties and tell who won the election, the witness said:
“even without using a calculator, His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom won the election with the highest number of lawful votes and required spread in accordance with section 179 of the 1999 constitution.

When the witness was asked to read out the figure of the votes scored by the APC and PDP, he said Governor Ortom and the PDP polled a total of 434,473 votes while Jime and the APC polled 345 ,155 votes.

The witness who served as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state collation agent in the 2019 governorship election said the wining margin between Governor Ortom and Jime was 89,318 votes in favor of Governor Ortom and the result declared by INEC was duely signed by the APC state collation agent, Barr Joe Abaagu, who even signed before him.

On the discrepancies between the figures of accredited voters on the result sheet and smart card reader, the witness stated that those whose PVCs were identified but thumb not recognized were allowed to vote after been accredited manually.

“If a voter’s PVC was identified by card reader, but his finger print was not recognized by the smart card reader machine, he will vote after been accredited on the manual register, and that figure will not appear on the smart card data.

” That is what is responsible for the discrepancies between the smart card reader figures and figures of accredited voters,” he said.

When asked during cross examination by counsel to Jime and the APC, Kehinde Eleja, SAN, if the card reader was used for accreditation, Adum maintained that the card reader was a necessary tool to identify a voter’s card and his thumb, while the voters register was used for accreditation.

He added that the INEC guidelines which talks about card reader is not a legal requirement, but administrative instructions.

Governor Ortom who is the second respondent in the petition continues his defense today, Saturday, August 17,2019.