18 June 2019
………COMMISSION CHALLENGED TO PROVE OTHERWISE THE ISSUE OF EXCLUSION.
The Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] yesterday at a renewed sitting of the Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal in Calabar reaffirmed the nomination of Senator John Owan Enoh as the lawful candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 9 governorship election NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
The commission however argued that Sen. Enoh was not excluded from the elections as claimed by the petitioner since he participated in the exercise having been relisted.
Senator Owan Enoh had petitioned the Electoral umpire which is the Second Respondent and Governor Ben Ayade, the First Respondent alleging unlawful exclusion from the election.
Counsel to INEC, Dele Adeshina had stated that Sen. Enoh was the duly nominated candidate of the APC and that the commission had issued a letter dated 8th March to that effect.
Apparently smarting from the petition, Adeshina said the candidate however participated in the election and so was not excluded.
He furthered that having cited a number of cases supporting the candidature and defending the issue of his exclusion, the Petitioner’s Counsel, Awa Kalu[SAN] should first appear in the witness box to affirm his position on Sen. Enoh.
Counsel to Sen. Ayade, Paul Erokoro [SAN] had argued that though the Petitioner was nominated for the election but his nomination was done by a faction of his party.
But in his argument, Counsel to Sen. Enoh, Awa Kalu [SAN] said the petitioner would not have participated in an election he was excluded.
According to him, the issue of faction as raised by the first respondent Counsel does not exist in internal democracy especially when it has to do with the sponsorship or nomination of candidates.
He contended that the issue of factions apply only in the Parliament when there’s a crisis within a party leading to cross-carpeting by Legislators and not on the basis of nomination of candidates for election.
He averred that Sen. Owan Enoh was duly nominated for the Governorship election by his party but was unlawfully excluded for the March 9 polls by the commission.
The Legal Luminary however challenged the first and second respondents to be the first to prove otherwise, the petition on exclusion stressing that INEC had never argued against a phone call made by the State Electoral Commissioner [REC] at 12pm on the elections day congratulating the petitioner for being relisted as the APC Candidate for the race.
Ruling on the onus of proof on exclusion or otherwise is tomorrow Tuesday, March 17.