The Labour Party (LP) in Enugu state has tendered its evidence against the election of Governor Peter Mbah.
The case filed by the party and its candidate, Barr Chijioke Edeoga, came up for hearing at the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Friday.
At the resumed hearing, Labour Party presented the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as its first witness.
Among the documents tendered by the NYSC are the alleged forged discharge certificate, as well as the original discharge certificate which Mbah ought to have collected, as well as a letter written by Oma and Partners, an Abuja-based law firm, which had asked the Corps to scrutinise the discharge certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the governor.
The Labour Party, represented by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) who is the lead counsel, alongside Dr. Valerie Azinge, SAN, Ifeanyi Ogenyi Esq, and others, led the Petitioners Witness 1 (PW1) in evidence.
The PW1, the Director of Certification (NYSC) Aliyu Abdul Mohammed, who adopted his written deposition on oath.
Awomolo sought to tender the witness’s deposition on oath as evidence before the tribunal.
The third respondent in the case, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counsel, Barr Anthony Ani (SAN) objected to the admissibility of the document and opted to move a motion dated and filed on July 7, 2023, which prayed the tribunal to strike out the written deposition on oath of the PW1 on the ground of incompetence.
The 1st respondent, INEC, as well as the 2nd respondent (Peter Mbah) worked together with the submission of Ani and prayed the court to strike out the written deposition of Mohammed (PW1) for lack of competence.
Mohammed told the tribunal that he acted on a subpoena served on the Director General of the NYSC or any other official to appear before the tribunal for the purposes of giving evidence in order to clear some issues about the certificate purportedly issued by the agency.
The subpoena was admitted in evidence without objection from the respondents and was marked as exhibit PTC/01/06.
Mohammed also tendered his official identity card as a staff of NYSC which was admitted in evidence and marked as exhibit PTC/01/07.
The respondents’ counsel objected to the admissibility of the documents and reserved their reasons for final written addresses.
The tribunal admitted the documents and marked them as exhibits PTC/ 01/08 a and b.
Also, a letter addressed to the presiding justice of the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, for the production of the appointment letter dated 14 July 2003, appointing Barr. Peter Mbah as the Chief of Staff to the then governor of Enugu state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani in the same year he (Mbah) claimed he was serving, also admitted in evidence amidst objections and marked as exhibit PTC/01/13 A&B.
The matter was adjourned to Tuesday, 11 July, 2023 for further hearing.
