Charles
Okoye the Election and Party Monitoring
Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) in Rivers
State on Friday who was subpoenaed personally by the Rivers State APC told the Rivers
State Governorship Election Tribunal that he did not witness illegal voting and
violence during the governorship election.
The
Rivers State APC through the Tribunal issued a subpoena directly to Charles
Okoye who appeared on Friday in his personal capacity and not as an official
of INEC.
The
INEC staff who was appeared as a principal witness for the Rivers State APC
told the Tribunal that he monitored the elections in eight local government
areas in company of three national commissioners from INEC headquarters.
Asked
under cross examination if he witnessed personally the violence he claimed
whilst he was led in evidence by the APC counsel, Okoye said he only heard of the said
violence.
He
also noted that he did not see anyone thumb printing in favour of the PDP, neither did he see political thugs snatching
and carting away electoral materials.
Asked
if he was Testifying because INEC was subpoenaed, Mr Okoye said that he was subpoenaed as a
person.
He
told the tribunal under cross examination that he wrote a personal report after
monitoring the governorship election, but stated that he bypassed INEC Rivers
State to submit his report to INEC headquarters.
The
Rivers State APC INEC subpoenaed staff could not explain why the Rivers
State
APC singled him out to help them prove their case. He, however, claimed that it was untrue that he was drafted
to help the Rivers State APC.
He
admitted that the official INEC report which was written by the three national
commissioners who led the monitoring of the Rivers State Governorship Election
was different from his personal report.
Okoye
also admitted that all the 23 Electoral Officers who conducted the governorship
elections in their respective local government areas of assignment have
officially recognised reports.
No comments:
Post a Comment