Emenyonu in Benin City
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 28, 2016 Edo State governorship election, yesterday testified at the state Election Petition Tribunal, asking it to declare him winner having scored the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election.
Ize-Iyamu stated this while giving testimony in the ongoing hearing in the petition filed by him and his party, PDP against the declaration of Godwin Obaseki of All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election.
The PDP candidate and first petitioner in the suit, who spoke when he was called in as the first petitioner’s witness during the resumption of hearing, told the Justice Ahmed Badamasi-led panel that he scored the highest number of votes in the election which was held across 2,629 polling units in the state.
Ize-Iyamu, who confirmed that he swore to an oath to four documents which he adopted as his testimony in the case, said: “I want the tribunal to declare me the winner of the election, having scored the majority votes.”
He said though he was not sure about the number of polling units for which Obaseki was declared winner, he did not challenge the outcome of the poll based on all the 2,629 polling units.
According him, most of his deposition at the tribunal were completely based on documents concerning what he saw on the result sheets and voter registers provided by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and pursuant to the order of the tribunal.
While responding to questions from counsel to Obaseki, Ken Mozia; Ize-Iyamu told the tribunal that he was in his unit throughout the election.
He, therefore, added that his claims in his petition could not be described as false as he could not remember all the polling units in the 18 local government areas of the state.
Another witness called by the petitioners, Anthony Lawani, told the tribunal during cross-examination that there was an alleged incident of over-voting in one of the wards in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area.
Lawani, who said he was a polling agent, claimed that he was in his unit from the beginning to the end of voting.
But when he was accused by the counsel to INEC, Onyinye Anumonye, of alleged falsehood when he deposited that he monitored the exercise in all the wards in Akoko-Edo, the witness said he monitored the election through phone calls.
He claimed that identity card given to him by the electoral umpire permitted him to make phone calls, rather than move around for monitoring.
Lawani also affirmed that he did not state the scores of the remaining political parties that fielded candidates for the election, aside the APC and the PDP.He alleged that there was over voting in some of the polling units even when his attention was drawn to some paragraphs in his deposition.
Continuing, Lawani, who earlier identified himself as a management consultant and accountant, however, caused a stir at the tribunal when he asked for permission to respond in pidgin English.
“I am sorry my Lord. Can I speak broken (English), he asked when Mozia raised concern about his use of the English language, claiming he had never made a mathematical blunder, as an accountant.
