Despite repeatedly asserting that elections were not conducted in any of over 2988 polling units during the last general elections in Akwa Ibom State, the petitioner, Mr Umana Umana of the All Progressives Congress stunned the Governorship Elections Petition tribunal when he failed to produce any of his party’s polling unit agent as a witness.
The All Progressives Congress gubernatorial flop had claimed that the party had a comprehensive list of accredited agents in all the polling units, wards and in the 31 local government areas as agents and that all the units, wards and local government agents promptly reported to their duty posts to perform their assignments.
From the submission by the petitioner, no fewer than 2,988 polling unit agents, 329 ward agents and 31 local government collation agents were accredited by the APC for the governorship election and all of them witnessed the so-called irregularities by the 1st,2nd and 3rd respondents in the elections on April 11, 2015.
But in what appears to beat the utmost imagination of the Justice Abubakar Umar Sadiq-chaired tribunal, none of the agents was deemed worthy by the petitioner of taking to the witness box to give a firsthand account of the election sharp practice.
Most observers at the tribunal in their separate opinions felt that APC agents who observed the ‘irregularities’ at their respective units and centres throughout the state, should have been brought to the court as witnesses to confirm the allegations of anomalies in the electoral processes.
Another resort to falsehood by Mr Umana Umana in his petition statement was the allegation that the state government purchased 800 buses and kept at government house until the election period when the buses where branded as Akwa Ibom Transport Corporation buses and dispatched for use in all parts of the state for electoral fraud.
However Umana and his team failed to provide a single photograph of the said 800 buses and could not bring out any evidence that such buses existed and that any such bus was used for electoral offences.
However when Elder Godwin Ntukude, the commissioner for Transport was docked as a witness for the 1st respondent to render account on the alleged buses, Ntukude revealed that Umana in his characteristics, had deceived the world, adding that AKTC which correctly means Akwa Ibom Transport Company had since been privatised and was operated independently by a private transporter.
“My Lord, the transport firm is currently operated by Mr Umana Umana’s kinsman Elder Nsikak Johnny, who also hails from Nsit Ubium like the petitioner.’”
Ntukude also clarified that no such buses where purchased by the state government for the Akwa Ibom Transport Company fleet, adding that the transport firm was never directly or indirectly involved in transporting of election materials on the elections day.
As the day of judgement in the governorship petitions tribunal draws nearer, not a few people believe that the Umana – led APC are already starring failure in the face.
No comments:
Post a Comment