Akpabio Vs Ekpeyong: INEC Voter Registers At Tribunal Fake - Witnesses Cry Out
By UbongAbasi Ise
Witnesses from Essien Udim local government area that testified yesterday at the tribunal said voter registers of Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial election tendered as evidence by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were different from those used at their respective polling units.
Mr. Raymond Udoaka, a witness who had served in the just concluded election as ward collation agent for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Odoro Ikot (I), pointed out to the tribunal that the voters register brought before it by INEC appeared fresh and clean unlike the one used at his polling unit in Ikot Umo Essien which was roughened up owing to overuse during the electoral process on February 23.
Series of voters' registers were shown to Mr. Udoaka by Barr. Solomon Umoh, counsel to the 2nd respondent (the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) to prove a point that accreditation did not take place in all the 10 polling units in Odoro Ikot (1) because of the presence of boxes that were not ticked for national assembly election in the voter registers marked as Exhibit R84 to R96, but the witness, after locating the voters' register for his polling unit, told the tribunal that it was different from the one used at his polling unit on the election day, noting that appropriate fields were duly ticked with blue biro pen in the register used for accreditation at his unit.
Udoaka was apparently stunned when the register indicated that he was not accredited for February 23 polls. He told the panel that his name and that of his wife were ticked in the voters' register by INEC ad hoc staff having met all the conditions of accreditation, after which they proceeded to vote.
He said what INEC presented as voters' register at Ikot Umo Essien polling unit was not an original document, but a photocopy.
When counsel to INEC, Ifeoluwa Ojedirun, Esq, put it forward to Mr. Raymond Udoaka that his client cancelled the results of all the polling units in the ward because of inconsistency found in the total number of votes cast and the number of voters accredited for the election, the witness denied any case of cancellation in Odoro Ikot (1), adding that, "I am hearing it for the first time."
Earlier, Barr. Paulinus Idio from Ikot Essien community in Essien Udim local government area, who entered the witness box, said while he was serving as the APC ward collation agent for Okon Ward in Essien Udim in the February 23 polls, there was no cancellation of results in 17 out of 20 polling units in the ward as claimed by INEC on grounds of failure to tick the boxes meant for national assembly election. Idio maintained that voters register of his unit, amidst others, shown to him during cross-examination was not the one he saw at the polling unit.
When INEC counsel, Ifeoluwa Ojedirun, showed the witness fields that were not ticked in the voter registers, Paulinus Idio complained that the photocopies of the registers were not clear enough as some of the boxes were dotted or ticked, while others had no mark at all.
The petitioner's lead counsel, S.I. Ameh, SAN, stressed that INEC should have brought the original copies of the registers to aid clarity of information.
Idio, while being reexamined by Ameh, said he was not served by INEC with the reports of the cancellation of results marked at the tribunal as Exhibit R352 and R352 (A).
The witness, after being made to answer questions on INEC cancellation reports, said he was not the maker of such documents.
Also, Mr. Godwin Etokakpan, an indigene of Ukana Ikot Akpa Essien village in Essien Udim local government area, who was APC ward collation agent for Ukana East Ward, also told the tribunal that he was made to see the document reporting the cancellation of results of 14 out of 23 polling units in his ward for the first time during his cross-examination.
Other witnesses that entered the box on Friday were Mr. Bassey Ekanem from Ikot Ukpong Etor and Mr. Imoh Akpan from Ikot Ibanga both in Essien Udim local government area.
While Ekanem said there was no cancellation of election results in all the seven polling units in Ukana West (1) where he served as Ward collation agent for APC, Mr. Akpan, who served as APC ward collation agent for Odoro Ikot (II) said it was "strange" to hear on Friday that election results were cancelled in the 10 polling units of his ward.
©The Sensor Newspaper
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