Edo Tribunal: Witnesses tender fake voter’s cards

Two voters’ cards tendered as exhibit by two witnesses at the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City were said to have been faked.

One of the witnesses, Okhegwai Monday, said in his adopted statement that he voted at Unit 10, in Ward 11 of Afuze in Owan East Local Government Area of the state.

Monday, however, said it was an error that his name was not in the voter register of Unit 10 but in the voter register of Unit 11.

The other voters’ card without Voter Identification Number (VIN) and Poling Unit Number (PUN) was presented by Ibrahim Yakub.

Both witnesses insisted that the cards were given to them by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

They were among the nine witnesses called by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Major-General Charles Airhiavbere in the on-going hearing of the petition he filed at the tribunal.

Airhiavbere is challenging the outcome of the July 14 governorship election.
NigerianObserver
***********************************************************************************
***********************************************************************************

 PRESS RELEASE

THE MEDIA MUST REPORT DISPASSIONATELY

The Nigerian Observer Newspaper in its front page headline of the
Saturday November 24, 2012 edition stated in part that ‘…Witnesses
Tendered Fake Voter’s Cards’. This claim is a premeditated and
fraudulent attempt to mislead Edo people with regard to the
proceedings at the Election Petition Tribunal where General Charles
Airhiavbere (rtd.), the PDP Gubernatorial Candidate for the July 2012
election is challenging the result and Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s
academic certificates that he submitted on oath to INEC.

All the witnesses called in the case are all registered and card
carrying members of the PDP and have their names in the INEC Voters’
Register, a fact attested to by the INEC official present at the
tribunal hearings. They all also testified of their own free will. As
revealed at the tribunal during cross-examination, the PIN and PUN
number issues were omissions of the INEC computers used in capturing
the registrants because the witnesses identified their various serial
numbers as captured in the register.

It is also not surprising that only the Edo-State-Government-owned
‘The Nigerian Observer’, amongst the several media establishments
present at the tribunal hearings, saw fit to either blackout, skew or
slant facts in this manner just as it did during the electioneering
period to other stakeholders not sympathetic to the Edo State
government.

The Nigerian Observer and all wont-to-be-prejudiced media houses must
be reminded firstly of their duty to give balanced reportage in line
with their professional oaths and secondly that General Airhiavbere
Campaign Organization (CACO) is seised of all its rights to pursue
lawful means to ensure fairness in the representation it gets from the
media.

We urge all Edo people to disregard the report in the Observer
newspaper and, as they have always wisely done, to continue to keep an
open mind regarding the Tribunal proceedings as they unfold.


Osazee Jesuorobo
For CACO