Akwa Ibom election tribunal and the phantom exhibits(I)

BY EMMANUEL NICHOLAS

The petition before the Akwa Ibom  Governorship tribunal sitting in Abuja filed by the Akwa Ibom All Progressive Congress (APC) against the election of Governor Udom Emmanuel is one that has attracted sufficient interest and commentaries. It should be so considering Akwa Ibom State’s enviable status in the comity of states in the Federation. What however is funny is the impression created by desperate APC agents that there will be a re-run in the state. In truth, if the court were not bound by law to sit on this case to the end, the Justice Sadiq Umar chaired tribunal would have found it easy to throw out this case for lack of merit and strong evidence. 

The phantom evidences presented to the court by most of their principal witnesses are laughable. Enter Atuekong Don Etiebet, can you imagine the elder statesman presenting a video of himself before an empty gate at the Uyo INEC office, and himself hitting the gate of the institution as a common burglar? Is that the quality of evidence to knock out an election properly conducted? Even at the election tribunal siting within the premises of the Federal Capital Tertiary, to be precise court 8, the Oruk Anam politician did not hide his tendency for mischief. He presented the tape and lied to the Court that it was filmed by his personal Assistant with his I Pad but in his written confession, he said he filmed it himself, even as the devise does not have a tripod. 

 
Chief Don Etiebiet must be a super human with super natural abilities to be able to record himself from such a distance even as the devise does not have a tripod. Chief Etiebet also told the tribunal that elections did not hold on 11th April 2015 in Oruk Anam local council area where he comes from and where he was at home to vote on that Election Day. He testified to massive irregularities, including but not limited to ballot snatching, absence of ballot materials at polling units, and bloody violence started and absorbed by thugs and followers of the PDP. However, appearing before the Justice Sadiq Umar chaired – tribunal, a defense witness (DW 7) Mr Ezekiel Jacob Obosi from Oruk Anam local government testified that Chief Etiebiet did not even leave his house as he (Obosi) was duly accredited and had voted in the polls during the general elections. Obosi who said he had served at the grassroots as a pioneer councillor in the area said he followed the procedure as directed by the INEC officials and had cast his vote for the PDP Governorship candidate Udom Emmanuel in a very peaceful atmosphere. Obosi who was shocked while being interrogated at the tribunal, was however shocked when he was told that Chief Don Etiebet and others had testified that there was no election in the entire local government. 

 
“Etiebet is our elder, but he never came to my polling unit on the day of the election, and should not have lied to this tribunal because I voted and others voted without any problem.” Obosi however appealed to the tribunal not to take up any criminal case against Etiebet as he may have acted under desperation. “If you come to Oruk Anam my local government area, you won’t see any APC flag because PDP is a culture and I don’t see how APC could have made any impact,” So, is it Etiebiet’s home video, shot, directed, produced and marketed by him that will prove there was election in Akwa Ibom State or his testimony punctured by Chief Obosi? Obong Victor Attah, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State further poured more water on APC’s watery petition. 

 

He also tendered video recordings and testified orally to the effect that elections did not hold according in Ibesikpo Asutan local council area where he comes from. During the cross Examination by the lead counsel of Governor Udom Emmanuel, Mr Paul Usoro SAN, Obong Attah tore his garments of statesmanship when he accepted that there was election in few polling units but with much irregularities contradicting his oral and video evidences. Udom Emmanuel’s defense team had no troubles in tearing Attah’s testimonies to shreds. The political leader of Attah’s Federal Constituency, Prince Uwem Ita Etuk. 

 
At Examination in Chief, Prince Etuk testified that he voted at unit 003, market square, Nung Udoe. He said there were materials and he voted. His testimony was not stained, even at cross examination. Another witness from Obong Attah’s administration is Jude Effiong Edet. At Examination -in - Chief, he testified that he is from Nung Udoe, Ibesikpo Asutan LGA and that he is a trader. Under cross examination, he said he was accredited via the card reader and voted at the elections. He said he left his polling unit by 4pm after voting by 3pm. He further added that the PDP won elections at his Local Government. When asked of his knowledge of Obong Attah, he told the court in all honesty that Obong Attah is a former Governor and an elder but that he didn’t show up for the elections. He said collation took place at ward level, then at local government level. 

 
Obong Umana Okon Umana’s counsel have been consistent in one line of argument that result sheets were signed by one agent of PDP by more than one ward or polling unit. The law does not forbid one person from signing for multiple sheets. As we continue to x-ray phantom exhibits and weigh evidences put together by the APC, even as the court makes up its mind too, We implore lest advise our elders not to throw their respect to the dogs on the altar of ungodly vengeance mission. What God has done no man can change. No man is greater than God.