EDO ELECTION PETITION TRIBUNAL: OSHIOMHOLE SUFFERS SET BACK.

 Eddy Ogunbor
At the Edo Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City on thursday, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole suffered a terrible setback when his lawyers tried unsuccessfully to prevent Gen. Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere's lawyers from tendering as exhibits , documents presented and deposited at the Tribunal by officers from the Natiional Archives of Nigeria in Benin City and Ibadan Zones. Gen. Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere's lawyers had requested the Tribunal to subpoena the National Archives of Nigeria to produce and tender before the Tribunal, certified true copies (CTC) of The Nigerian Tribune of July 12th, 2012 which carried an advertorial by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) warning the electorates, forty eight (48) hours to the July 14th, 2012 governorship election that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was not educationally qualified to contest for and in the Edo State governorship election held on July 14th, 2012 in line with the electoral laws and that any vote cast for him will be declared void.
The second document produced and presented to the Trinunal by the National Archives was a gazette of the Western Region of Nigeria showing the primary schools that were in existence in the region in 1957, especially in the Kukuruku Division 2, Adams Oshiomhole's homeland as it then was.
Gen. Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere needed the documents to buttress the fact that the primary school Comrade Adams Oshiomhole claimed he attended did not exist in the year 1957, the year he (Oshiomhole) claimed he attended the primary school.
After over three (3) hours submissions by the petitioner's (Gen. Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere) lawyer, Chief Efe Akpofure (SAN) and other eminent SAN's representing the 1st - 5th respondents (Adams Oshiomhole), ACN, INEC, REC INEC and Returning Election Officer, led by Ricky Tarfa, Chief Niyi Akintola, Ken Mozia, O.A.Omonuwa, Mike Ozokhome and others requesting the Tribunal Judges to reject  the documents as exhibits, the Tribunal Judges, after  about one hour thirty minutes recess, ruled that the documents be accepted as exhibits based on relevant facts and relevance of the documents to the petitioner's claims in his deposition before the Tribunal.
The petitioner (Gen. Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere) was thereafter called to the witness stand for examination by lawyers to 1st - 5th respondents.
The Tribunal adjourned sitting to Wednesday 5th December, 2012 when the lawyers to the 1st respondent (Adams Oshiomhole) will start submission before the Tribunal for ten (10) days.