Edo tribunal: Witnesses say voters voted without accreditation

MORE witnesses presented by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday testified before the Edo State governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City that the September 28, 2016, governorship election failed the test of a free and fair election
The PDP and its candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, are challenging the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission of Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The witnesses, who were mostly PDP agents from Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area, said that voters freely voted without accreditation during the election and that the votes recorded were more than the number of those accredited in some places.
One of the witnesses, Mr Godwin Popori, who was PDP’s agent in Unit 5, Ward 5 in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, told the tribunal that though he was allowed to vote by the officials of INEC, he however did so without any form of accreditation.
He also alleged that he got calls from other PDP agents in the council that there were no accreditations in their units, adding that the “polling units in unit five did not have voters registers.”
Earlier, the first witness, Mr Godwin Igbinaduwa Eribo, who was PDP’s collation officer for ward seven in the local government, informed the tribunal that he monitored voting in the ward and observed that incidents of over-voting and voting without accreditation.
Another witness, Hon Godwin Edosa Omorogieva, who was PDP’s Ward Collation Agent at a ward in the council, said he complained to INEC official that the number of voters was more than those on voters’ register, but that the INEC official replied him by saying, “you cannot teach me my work”.
Maxwell Igiede, who was the PDP’s Collation Officer in Ward 11, challenged counsel to the respondents to show him the ticking in the voters’ register that indicated that he was accredited before voting.
Two other witnesses Revd Martins Evbuomwan and Mr Osaro Osasumen were also united in  their testimonies that INEC failed to follow due process in their polling units and that cases of no accreditation of voters and over voting was the order of the day in their wards.
Wednesday sitting had in attendance Governor Godwin Obaseki, who exchanged pleasantries with the PDP governorship candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu, and the Edo State PDP chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, before taking his seat.

Source: Tribuneonlineng.com