14 more witnesses of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) testifying at the Plateau State Gubernatorial Petition Tribunal have raised the alarm that they are being threatened to stop testifying.
This was disclosed by the lead Counsel to the petitioners, Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
Ozekhome informed the tribunal that some of the witnesses lined up by his team to testify have received threats to change their minds about testifying before the tribunal or face the consequences.
“My lords may not know this, but we are doing our best to cope with the new challenge”, he maintained.
“But we assure you that we will use the fixed time allotted to us to conclude our case.”
Meantime, the witnesses have complained of how the governorship elections were rigged as results were altered in their various polling units to favour Simon Bako Lalong.
The witnesses from Jos East, Mangu, Bokkos and Shendam Local Government Areas, while testifying, affirmed their claims with exhibits already tendered before the Tribunal.
They showed how scores were tampered with after they had signed the result sheets.
They also told the tribunal that “Presiding Officers” and some security officials refused to take action on their complaints about over-voting.
According to the witnesses, the total of votes scored and rejected votes exceeded the number of voters accredited for the elections in areas in contention.
In addition, witnesses have told the tribunal that the electoral umpire (INEC) took away original copies of the results for their areas, “because they knew what they did was wrong”, said Lalsa Bako of Shimankar in Shendam LGA.
This point was further stressed by lead counsel to the petitioners, Ozekhome, who said his team was really amused at the line of questioning by respondents’ Counsel.
“We are just laughing on this side at the kind of questions that respondents’ counsels are asking our witnesses.
“How do they expect us to have in our possession original copies of INEC result sheets and registers of voters? Won’t they arrest us if they find these on us? He asked.
“What kind of questioning is this? All we are complaining about is criminal over voting”.
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