Former Gov. Ben Ayade and the All Progressives Congress have tendered 749 exhibits to upturn the election of Sen. Jarigbe Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the ongoing National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) in Cross River.
The sitting in Calabar, which continued to the late hours of Tuesday, July 25, 2023 was however adjourned to 10 a.m. on July 26 due to the poor lighting system in the courtroom.
The petitioners, Ayade and APC, called four witnesses for cross examination from Bekwarra Local Government Area, one of the LGAs in the northern senatorial district of the state where they alleged electoral irregularities.
However, a mild drama ensued in the courtroom when the lead counsel of Sen. Jarigbe, Mba Ukweni, SAN objected to the right of two witnesses of the petitioners to identify evidence P39 brought before the court.
Ukweni argued that for a witness to be able to identify or tender a document from the witness box, he or she must have mentioned or referred to it in an earlier deposition.
“It is similar to the rule of pleading; if you don’t plead any fact, you cannot lead evidence on it.
“So, if a witness does not refer to a document in his statement, he cannot also identify the document from the witness box or have it tendered, not just in election cases but also in civil matters,” he said.
Vehemently opposing the counsel to the respondent, Lead Counsel of the petitioners, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, said a witness could mention matters relating to the document in his deposition if he is a polling unit agent for his party.
“Our witnesses have mentioned register, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) and voters, the only thing they said they did not do was that they should have said voter register in their deposition.
“Our witnesses said they are from their polling units and can identify the document, the document was already tendered as exhibit, they were not trying to tender them but to identify them.
“A witness from a polling unit can be made to look at the register of voters or any document from that polling unit which he has identified,” he said.
Ruling on the matter, Justice M. A. Sambo upheld the objection of counsel to the respondent, Jarigbe and the PDP that a witness can only identify and speak on an issue contained in the deposition which he tendered.
This decision did not go down well with the counsel to the petitioners as he disclosed that they would challenge it in the end in their final written address.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ayade is contesting the Feb. 25 Cross River Northern Senatorial District election in which Sen. Jarigbe of the PDP was declared winner.