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Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin-Kebbi
The Federal High Court sitting in Birnin-Kebbi on Tuesday night rejected ballot papers presented by the All Progressive Congress (APC) as part of its evidence before the court in the ongoing disputed Dandi/Arewa, Kebbi State Federal constituency primary election of the party.
The Plaintiff, Hon. Umar Abdullahi Kamba, who claimed to have won the APC primary is challenging House of Representative member Hon. Hussaini S. Kangiwa, who is the second defendant, APC and INEC, which are first and third defendants, over substitution of his name for the national election.
At the resumption of the case on Tuesday, which commenced from 9am till 10 pm, APC witness Ahmed Temitope, a Senior Organising Officer at the APC Headquarters Office, Abuja, during cross examination had presented ballot papers in which Hon. Kangiwa had majority votes.
He also told the court that he has input in the compilation of aspirants names and custody of ballots based on the nature of his routine in the party.
Counsel to the second defendants Hussenin Zakariyah pleaded before the court to substitute his application to regularise defects in their applications, which was not known to them, to allow the witness to proceed with the presentation of ballot papers that contains facts about his client’s claims on the litigation.
Counsel to the APC Barrister Abdulganiyul Aremo, while backing counsel to the second defendant, cited cases of NALSA and Tin Association vs NNPC 1991, Oil Mobile Production vs MNOKPO 2003, to justify admission of the ballot papers as an evidence.
According to him, “the court can use its discretion to accept ballot papers or not. We want my Lord to exercise it discretion to admits this as evidence.”
Leading Counsel to the Plaintiff, I . K Bawa, SAN, had kicked against admission of the ballot papers as evidence and oral application by the second defendant’s counsel to substitute application on evidence before the court.
He questioned the credibility of the witness who was standing for APC National Secretary and Prof Monday Osubor, APC Chairman of Kebbi State Primary Election Committee.
Bawa argued that “the cases cited by the defendant’s counsel have no links with ballot papers but party’s primary.
“The implications of this is that, if the court granted this prayer, the case could be suspended for ruling and application could be struck out. It is too late and deceitful, my Lord. I urge this court to reject it,” he said.
The court had earlier reminded the respondent’s counsel that the plaintiff had requested them to bring the ballot papers where their client won the election, stressing that the ballot papers in court must be tallied with their request.
Earlier, during cross examination, a member of the APC primary election panel, Mr Samuel Ekpe, admitted that he wrote results of the Dandi/Arewa primary election in an ordinary paper and transfered it to the election results sheet at their collation centre located in a hotel where the Chairman of the panel, Professor Monday Osubor, signed it.
Ekpe told the court that he didn’t sign any results sheet personally, stressing that “what we did was to collate results and record it in a results sheet in our collation centre in a hotel. The results sheet was then signed by our chairman,” he said.
Ruling on the acceptability of the ballot papers Tuesday night, Justice Sunday Onu Bassey rejected the ballot papers, in his words, “thereby marked as rejected.”
