In a desperate attempt to subvert justice, the PDP applied for a subpoena at the Tribunal to compel INEC to produce the alleged Incident Forms at the Tribunal as part of the their defense to the petition. During the Thursday's hearing, the PDP failed for a second day to present more witnesses. As at Thursday. To date only four witnesses have been able to testify in their defense.
Fraudulent and embattled INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Austin Okojie, on Thursday September 10, 2015 brought several big bags said to contain Incident Forms allegedly used during the sham April 11 governorship election in the State. The incident took place at to the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
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SaharaReporters has been informed by several sources that the Akwa Ibom REC plotted with the PDP and fraudulently filed several hundreds of thousands of incident forms after the sham election had been concluded to cover up for the massive difference between the total number of accredited voters as recorded by the Card Reader and the fraudulent votes that was declared.
In a desperate attempt to subvert justice, the PDP applied for a subpoena at the Tribunal to compel INEC to produce the alleged Incident Forms at the Tribunal as part of the their defense to the petition. During the Thursday's hearing, the PDP failed for a second day to present more witnesses. As at Thursday. To date only four witnesses have been able to testify in their defense.
During Thursday's hearing, an application by the PDP to call new and additional witnesses was dismissed by the Tribunal. SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the PDP could not call their remaining witnesses from fear that they lacked credibility and may damage their case.
Mr. Obinna Ajogu arrived the Tribunal with six big bags, which he told the Tribunal contains Incident Forms for 30 out of the 31 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the State. He claimed that on his arrival he discovered that he had left one bag behind and promised to bring it to the Tribunal on Friday September 11, 2015.
At the center of this debate is whether manual accreditation of votes were allowed during the gubernatorial elections. INEC by a press statement dated 2nd April, 2015 signed by Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu, the Secretary to the Commission, stated emphatically that for the governorship elections only the Card Reader should be used and that elections should be rescheduled for the next day in any unit where the Card Reader fails.
In the case of Akwa Ibom State, there was no single case of rescheduled election in any of the polling units in the State which implies that the Card Reader worked efficiently. While certified true copy of the number of accredited voters in the State obtained from INEC shows that only 487,490 people were accredited to vote, the corrupt Akwa Ibom State REC fraudulently declared over 1.1 million votes for the election and awarded "victory" to the PDP.