Witness tenders 5 BVAS machines as LP closes case against Mbah in Enugu

The Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chijioke Edoga, on Sunday closed his case in the petition challenging Governor Peter Mbah’s victory in the March 18 election in the state.

Edeoga closed his case after calling 30 witnesses and one witness subpoena from Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Victor Okafor, to prove his allegations of fraud and certificate forgery against the governor.

Edeoga is asking the tribunal to disqualify Mbah over an alleged forgery of his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate and manipulation of election results.

When the matter came up for hearing, the witness, Okafor told the tribunal that his commission provided five Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines that were provided in the subpoena list.

The LP counsel, Mr. Eyitayo Fatogun (SAN), tendered the five BVAS machines to the tribunal while the PDP counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, and Mbah’s counsel, Mr. Alex Izinyon objected to the tendering of the machines.

The counsels said that their reasons would be made known during their final addresses.

READ ALSO: Enugu tribunal invites Gov Mbah to testify in certificate forgery petition

The tribunal, however, admitted the BVAS machines as evidence.

During cross-examination by Fatogun, the witness said the information that was generated on the BVAS machines during the governorship election was contained in the BVAS report from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

He listed the codes of the BVAS machines as 14/08/06/003, 14/08/01/002, 14/08/06/005, 14/08/17/012, 14/08/01/003,

“All the machines contained the BVAS and accessories,” he said.

The INEC counsel, Mr. H. Okoli, applied for a date to open their defense on the matter.

The tribunal chairman, Justice M. K Akano, adjourned the matter till July 18 for INEC to open its defense.

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