Emerhor contested the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, while Okowa ran on the plank of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

At the last sitting on October 13 where both parties adopted written addresses, Justice Nasir Gunmi, who heads the three-man tribunal, promised to communicate the judgment date, which must be before October 28, to the parties through the tribunal secretary.

In petitions number EPT/DT/GOV/32/2015 and EPT/DT/GOV/23/2015, Emerhor and APC approached the tribunal to nullify Okowa’s election on the ground of non-compliance with relevant sections of the Electoral Act.

Counsel to the 1st Respondent (Okowa), Alex Iziyon (SAN); 2nd Respondent (PDP), Timothy Kehinde (SAN); and 3rd respondent (INEC), Damian Dodo (SAN), urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions with substantial cost against the petitioners, citing relevant sections of the law and previously decided cases.

The respondents’ counsel also urged the tribunal to strike out the petitions on grounds of lack of merit and incompetence.

The petitioners who anchored their respective cases on compulsory use of card readers for accreditation, argued that they had been able to prove the cases of over voting and electoral irregularities during the election to justify nullifying the election and ordering a re-run.

Counsel to Emerhor and the APC, Chief Thompson Okpoko (SAN) contended that Section 153 of the Electoral Act confers on INEC the power to make regulations for the conduct of elections based on which the INEC issued guidelines and press release informing Nigerians that card readers would be used.

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The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State in the April 11 poll, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor, is contesting the declaration of Okowa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the poll, by INEC, as the winner of the governorship election.

Okowa, who is the first respondent, his party, the PDP, and INEC have moved three motions before the tribunal, seeking to stop the electoral umpire from giving oral evidence, aside tendering documents relating to the poll.

The Justice N.U. Gunmi-led three-member tribunal had, on August 12, 2015, issued a subpoena to the Head of ICT Department in INEC and INEC to appear before the tribunal to give evidence as requested by Emerhor and the APC, who are the petitioners.

Counsel for Okowa, Alex Iziyon(SAN), the lawyer representing the PDP, A.T. Kehinde(SAN), and D.D. Dodo, who is the counsel for INEC, had objected to the subpoena and the official giving oral evidence before the panel.

In three motions before the tribunal, the respondents had argued that the petitioners were looking for a way of bringing in additional witnesses, which were not pleaded in their petitions, a move that would contravene an earlier ruling of the tribunal on August 5.

Kehinde, who is the counsel for the PDP, had said the petitioners’ prayer was “a surreptitious way of bringing in additional witnesses, which would be contrary or set aside the ruling of the tribunal on August 5, which refused the petitioners’ application to bring in additional witnesses”.

Counsel for the APC and Emerhor, Thompson Okpoko(SAN), had argued before the tribunal that the objection of Iziyon and Kehinde amounted to “crying more than the bereaved”, as the subpoena was not issued to either Okowa or the PDP.

Ruling on the three motions on Friday, Justice Gunmi agreed with Okpoko that the subpoena to the INEC was not the business of Okowa or the PDP.

“The first respondent (Okowa) and second respondent (PDP) were not served the subpoena and have no right to complain about and cannot dictate which witnesses to call to prove their case,” the judge added.

In dismissing Okowa’s motions, the tribunal chairman said the subpoena issued to INEC was for the concerned official to give both oral evidence and tender relevant documents before the panel.

“The sum total of what we have been saying is that the respondents/applicants have not shown any good reason why the subpoena issued on the 12th of August in this petition should be set aside. They have not shown that it was issued without jurisdiction thereby making the issuance a nullity or that it was obtained by fraud thereby making its setting aside ex debito justitiae possible.

“The net effect of this is that the applications are liable to be dismissed and they are hereby dismissed,” Justice Gunmi said.

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