Edeoga and his party have insisted that the election was rigged and that Mbah didn't get the highest number of valid votes cast during the poll.
The Labour Party and its governorship candidate in the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga have officially closed their case in the matter challenging the victory of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election.
Edeoga and his party have insisted that the election was rigged and that Mbah didn't get the highest number of valid votes cast during the poll.
Edeoga is also pleading with the tribunal to disqualify Mbah over the alleged forgery of his National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate.
The LP candidate closed his case after he tendered several documentary evidence and called for 30 witnesses who testified before the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Enugu.
Among the exhibits he tendered before the court were polling unit results (form EC8A) in all the areas in contention; ward collation results (form EC8B) in the affected areas and a summary of the results as well as the declaration of the results.
The petitioners also tendered among many others, the NYSC produced documents of Oma and Partners; form EC9 of Chijioke Edeoga and Governor Mbah as well as the BVAS machines which was brought to court by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who was subpoenaed to appear before the court on Sunday.
Though Edeoga initially told the court that he would call a total of 37 witnesses to testify in the matter, he closed his case on Sunday with the testimony of the Enugu State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who appeared as the 30th witness for the petitioners.
At the resumed hearing on Sunday where the REC was subpoenaed to produce BVAS machines, one of the senior staff members of the commission, Victor Okafor, brought only five BVAS machines as against the number demanded by the petitioners.
Edeoga had applied for a subpoena on the REC to produce the BVAS machines from Owo, Ugbawka 1 Registration Areas in the Nkanu East Local Government Area as well as some other polling units in Igboeze North LGA.
But during cross-examination by the petitioners’ counsel, Okafor who appeared on behalf of the REC, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, said he was mandated to produce five BVAS machines before the tribunal.
He said the information that was generated on the BVAS machines during the governorship election on March 18 was now contained in the BVAS report from the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
He said he did not have the BVAS machines for Owo and Ugbawka 1 registration areas in Nkanu East, adding that the machines could only be identified by their codes.
According to him, the codes of the five BVAS machines brought are 14/08/06/003, 14/08/01/002, 14/08/06/005, 14/08/17/012 and 14/08/01/003.
"All the machines contained the BVAS and accessories," he said.
He said he could not operate the BVAS machines beyond the information he earlier gave concerning them because they (machines) had not been used since after the election.
He also did not provide the certified true copies of the BVAS report of the 2023 governorship election polling unit- by -polling unit as well as the CTC of the voter registers used in Owo and Ugbawka 1 Registration Areas in Nkanu East LGA of the state.
He however insisted that he was not holding back any information, as according to him, all the documents applied and paid for had been supplied to the petitioners.
The LP counsel, Mr Eyitayo Fatogun (SAN) tendered the five BVAS machines to the tribunal but the PDP counsel, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu and Mbah's counsel, Mr Alex Izinyon objected to the tendering of the machines.
They said their reasons would be made known during their final addresses.
The tribunal, however, admitted the BVAS machines as evidence.
Responding to the question by the counsel for Mbah, the INEC staff member said the machine could contain only successfully uploaded accredited information.
The last two witnesses called by the LP, Mr Abba Godwin and Amos Onyebuchi, who were LP agents from Ette Central and Ikwele Ugbele respectively, both from Igbo-Etiti North LGA, said that there was overvoting at their polling units during the governorship election.
Upon the closure of the petitioner’s case, the lead counsel for the petitioner, Dr V. J. Azinge (SAN) commended the tribunal for their patience as she closed the case.
The INEC counsel, Mr H. Okoli applied for a date to open its defence.
The Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice M. K. Akano adjourned the matter to July 18 for INEC to open its defence.