From Tony Osauzo, Benin

Delay by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Asue Ighodalo in the Edo State September 21st governorship election and his party, in serving respondents in their petition at the state Election Petition Tribunal the list of witness schedule, yesterday, forced adjournment of hearing of the matter to today (Tuesday).

When the petition was called at resumption of hearing yesterday, Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Monday Okpebholo, and All Progressives Congress (APC), Kanu Agabi, SAN, Onyeche Ikpeazu, SAN, and Emmanuel Ukala SAN, in their oral applications, objected to the petitioners’ quest to go ahead to call witnesses.

They informed the tribunal that Counsel to the petitioners only served them the witness schedule list few minutes to the commencement of proceedings, arguing that the development denied them the time to adequately prepare for the cross examination of the proposed witnesses.

Specifically, Ukala argued that “In view of the Tribunal directives on Saturday and agreement reached by parties in the petition that list of witness schedule should be exchanged by parties at least 24 hours before witness are called for each day, we expected that the schedule should be served on us yesterday (Sunday) through electronically or other means but Counsel to the petitioners failed to do so.

“We did not see any list till at about 9:50 am (10 minutes ) before the resumption of hearing this morning. Our understanding of the Tribunal’s earlier directives and the consensus reached by parties in the suit is to assist Your Lordship that no party is taken by surprise

“This purpose is clearly defeated when a list of witness is served on a party few minutes to the commencement of hearing.

“In that circumstance, it is our humble submission that the petitioners by their own choice rendered proceedings of today impossible and in this circumstance, we wish to say we will be ready to come back tomorrow.”

Counsel to INEC, Agabi, while aligning himself to the submissions of Ukala, said “We are in the same predicament my Lord. Our duty here is to assist Your Lordships to reach a fair decision which we cannot do under this circumstance.

Similarly, Counsel to the 2nd respondent, Ikpeazu also adopted the positions of Ukala and Agabi.

In their response, the Petitioners Counsel, Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, said the action to serve the respondents counsel with the list of witness schedule on Monday morning was occasioned by threat to their witnesses by the state APC Chairman.

“My Lords, we did not deliberately delay the circulation of these witnesses we intend to call today. It was because of the situation we found ourselves up to yesterday (Sunday) evening.

“My Lords, the 3rd respondent state Chairman had made a broadcast on television and we have a clip of it where he threatened to apprehend our witnesses and supporters of PDP in the court premises.

“He specifically said that they (our witnesses) will be arrested today in court and dare them to show up today. We sent this video to counsel of the 3rd respondent and we did not even get assurance of safety or security from them.

“We urge the Tribunal to refuse their applications for adjournment and allow us to proceed with our witnesses, after all, they are just eight in number”, Oyeyipo said.

In his ruling, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, upheld arguments of the respondents Counsel and adjourned sitting to today, January 21, 2025 for continuation of hearing.

He sai the respondents Counsel needed time to prepare themselves for the petitioners’ witnesses.