A witness, Mr.Jenkins Wisiki, in the petition filed by the Delta Central Senatorial District Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Peters Omaruaye, against the declared winner of the election, Chief Ede Dafinone at the Delta State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Asaba on Saturday, 8th of July 2023, has told the tribunal that INEC declared Chief Ede Dafinone of APC winner without compliance with its (INEC’s) own guidelines.
Mr. Jekins Wisike who mounted the witness box as the second witness for the petitioner, told the three member panel of Justices how he voted in unit 5 ward 2 of Ughelli North LGA without proper accreditation by the BVAS.
Mr. Jenkins Wisiki tendered several documents to prove his case, amongst which were form EC25B in several wards across the eight (8) LGAs within Delta Central Senatorial District. Several letters from INEC and APC were also admitted as exhibits and the witness’ personal letter to INEC, including a certified true copy of the Bimodal Voter’s Accreditation System (BVAS) report used for the conduct of the said election in all the wards across Delta Central Senatorial District.
Also, documents containing Arithmetic table where the witness tabulated the figures of the BVAS report of polling units of the respective wards that constitute the Senatorial District were tendered.
He used these figures to juxtapose the result declared by INEC and all the witness’s documents were admitted and marked as exhibits.
During cross examination of the witness, INEC counsel ask if the witness was accredited and if he voted?
Mr. Wisiki, said he was wrongly accredited and voted in Unit 5 Ward 2 in Ughelli North LGA and that this scenario was exactly what played out on election day in several polling units across Delta Central Senatorial District as evidenced in the BVAS report.
Asked if he was an expert, He said although he isn’t an expert, he has the simple knowledge of arithmetic calculation, which is enough to calculate figures in an election. He emphasised that one did not need to be an expert to be able to calculate figures in an election.
Earlier in the day, the first witness presented by the petitioner was one Mr Izumo from INEC who was subpoenaed by the petitioner to tender several INEC documents.
After the two witnesses for the day had been done with, the petitioner’s counsel, Barrister Diejomaoh closed his case and the court adjoined to 12th of July 2023 for the respondents to open their case.
