Presidential Tribunal: Drama as witness shed tears in court

A mild drama played out on Wednesday at the ongoing presidential election petition tribunal (PEPT) when a witness, Harume Mohammed Yahaya, under cross-examination bursted into tears before the court.

Yahaya who alleged that election materials were burnt in his polling unit equally alleged that supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were shot in Kogi State during the February 23 presidential election.

The 57th witness popularly known as ‘Honourable’ told the court that he served as a Ward Collation Agent during the election.

According to him, on the day of election, some political thugs invaded his Ward and started shooting sporadically after burning and carting away the electoral materials.

Testifying further, Yahaya said that out of the two people that were hospitalized due to serious injuries as a result of the incident, one of them subsequently died.

“There was so much gunshot which started around 3pm on the election day so much that I had to go into hiding inside the bush for the whole duration of the election”. The witness told the tribunal that one of his colleagues called Efe was abducted by the gunmen and released the next day,”

At that point, he could no longer control his emotion even when President Buhari’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun wanted to continue with his cross examination as he started weeping.

The chairman of the tribunal panel, Justice Garba thereafter ordered that he be offered handkerchief to wipe his tears, while appealing to him to as a mature man be strong and control his emotion so that the proceeding can continue.

When the cross-examination resumed, Chief Olanipekun asked Yahaya to identify the statement he purportedly signed in respect of the presidential election result, he told the court that it was his but that he signed under duress.

When reminded that he could not have supervised the 29 polling units in his Ward which he described as a stronghold of the petitioners in Kogi State owing to the attack, he insisted that he got his information via phone caklls.

However, when asked by Chief Olanipekun to tell the tribunal the party that won the last election in his Ward, the witness broke down in tears again saying: “My lords there was no election. They allocated votes to themselves. Beyond the issue of votes this is human lives we are talking about”,

“PDP would have won the election if they had allowed it to go peacefully”, he insisted, saying that he was previously a member of the ruling party.

Meanwhile earlier, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has ordered the issuance of subpoena on the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Zamfara State.

They are, by the subpoena issued on July 9, 2019, expected to appear and produce some documents used for the last election, required by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, who are petitioners before the tribunal.

At the resumption of proceedings on Wednesday, petitioners’ lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), told the tribunal that the subpoena had been served on the two officials but they have failed to either appear or make available the documents requested.

He said subpoena are like summons from a court that the subject must obey.

Tribunal Chairman, Justice Mohammed Garba noted that from the record of the court, Yakubu was served with the subpoena on July 15, 2019 when he was required to produce the documents.

Garba also noted that the one on the Zamfara REC was served on July 12.

He asked INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Usman (SAN) to take the necessary steps to ensure the subpoena is complied with.

After parties submission, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Mohammed Garba ruled that INEC chairman and Zamfara REC should appear on Friday 19th July, all parties raised no objections.

Further proceeding has therefore been adjourned to Friday 19th July, 2019 for continuation of hearings and cross-examinations of other witnesses.

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