Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), are slated to begin their defence on April 15th at the state’s governorship election tribunal in Abuja.
This comes as a response to the petition filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Murtala Yakubu (Ajaka).
The tribunal, chaired by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, confirmed the commencement date after the SDP and Yakubu closed their case, having presented 25 witnesses out of the initially stated 400.
The SDP and its gubernatorial candidate are contesting Gov. Ododo’s victory in the Nov. 11, 2023 poll.
In their petition, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ododo, and APC are named as the 1st to 3rd respondents, respectively.
During the recent court session, lawyers representing INEC, Ododo, and APC objected to Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, leading the witness, Edidiong Udoh, a Digital Forensic Expert, in evidence.
They argued that the witness was not listed in the petition’s proof of evidence and that his statement was not submitted alongside the petition.
Additionally, they claimed the petitioners only served the witness’ analysis reports 20 minutes before the proceedings began.
In response, Okutepa maintained that the forensic expert was indeed listed in the petition and his statement was submitted along with it.
He, however, admitted that the report was served on the respondents a few minutes to the proceedings.
The lawyer, therefore, prayed the tribunal to allow him lead Udoh in evidence and stand down the matter for 30 minutes for the respondents to study the report.
Udoh, who described himself as a digital forensic expert living in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, begged the tribunal to allow him amend Paragraph 7, Line 3 of his statement on oath, which he submitted on January 12 2024, before adopting it.
“The particular words that I used were not proper. I said, ‘There was some very suspicious software.’ I apply to change it to ‘there was no suspicious software used,’” he prayed.
But Agabi, Iziyon and Ukala disagreed with Udoh’s oral application.
“If this kind of amendment is permissible, then there is no kind of amendment that cannot be permissible,” Agabi said.
The judge asked them to reserve their objections for their final written addresses.
Iziyon and Ukala, who backed Agabi’s submission, agreed to raise the objection at the appropriate time.
While giving evidence, Udoh said he had 12 certificates in support of his qualifications.
And when Okutepa sought to tender the certificates of the witness as exhibits, the respondents’ lawyers objected.
They queried why the counsel only sought to tender photocopies of the certificates without supporting the documents with the originals.
The witness responded that he forgot to come with the original certificates.
“The originals were mistakenly left in my office in Port Harcourt but I have them,” Udoh said.
Although the tribunal refused to admit the photocopies, the petitioners’ lawyer pleaded, insisting that the certificates were personal documents and that they could be admitted.
Justice Birnin-Kudu admitted the documents and urged the counsel for the respondents to reserve their objections till the final address.
While being cross-examined, the witness was asked if he was the only one that worked on the report, and he said eight other experts worked on it with him.
His attention was drawn to the fact that he did not signify the names of these experts in the report and that their signatures were not also included.
Udoh responded that his name and signature were on the report because he was the team leader.
“Eight of us conducted the analysis. As digital forensic experts, our qualifications are identical.
“I signed the report as the team lead. The reason I did not include their name is because I was the team lead,” he said.
The witness was also asked if he knew the meaning of BVAS Machine and what it contained. He said they were supposed to contain information on accredited voters and registered voters and any other information.
The Respondents’ counsel asked if such information included Form EC8A and he said yes, it might include it.
The respondents’ lawyer then asked if all the snap shots of BVAS Machine that were included in his report contained Form EC8A.
Udoh said the snap shots were only for accredited voters and registered voters.
The INEC guideline provides what BVAS should contain and Form EC8A is one of it.
When asked if he examined the ballot papers and if his findings on the ballot papers were contained in his report, he said no.
He, however, confirmed that INEC gave him the voters register but that he could not remember the number given to him.
A major discrepancy observed during the hearing was that figures reflected in the witness’ report conflicted with the figures contained in SDP’s petition.
But he said he did not depend on the petition to write his report.
The witness, who was said to have used a word, dactylography, in his report was asked if he knew the meaning, he said yes, that he was an expert in finger print.
His attention was then brought to his CV, as tendered, which did not mention that.
When asked if he knew that there was a certificate for experts in dactylography, he said he didn’t know.
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