*As Election Tribunal Rounds Up Matter
Bribery and corruption will not save PDP and it’s House of Representatives candidate, Ndudi Elumelu in the last NASS election held in the Federation of Nigeria as Rep Ngozi Okolie turns a thorn on the party. The same as there are mad cows, there are mad politicians and political parties in Nigeria. There are no regrets to say that the mad cows and mad politicians are some members of PDP and the party belongs to one of the mad political parties in Delta State and beyond. As the tribunal is trying to put finishing touches on the election matter between the winner of the House of Representatives election in Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, Ngozi Okolie and the loser Ndudi Elumelu, it remains immovable by facts and principles that these mad cows in PDP have started another political rat race in the rotten party in order to influence the tribunal to stop Ngozi Okolie, who defeated their candidate. Reliable sources which have close contacts with ZN, revealed that these mad cows who are not better than executed armed robbers that have no stakes in this world have allegedly received millions of naira from their candidate to influence the tribunal, forgetting that nobody battles with God’s anointed one. Saul, Goliath and many others tried it in the bible but failed. PDP’s will not be an exception. The tribunal should also know that the world is watching.
When history is asleep it is memory that wakes it up. And when memory itself falls into stupor, we invoke remembrance to kick it into active consciousness. It is now confirmed that Ngozi Okolie, who bought his election form with his personal resources attended the great and famous St Patrick’s College, Asaba, an imperial institution popularly called a varsity on the Niger, because of its educational standard has now become a torn in the flesh of the PDP. These PDP mad cows have also confirmed and convinced that Ngozi Okolie, who was a Director in the Direct Labour Agency and Commissioner in the State, resigned from every position he held in August 2022, before venturing into the election contest in February 2023, undermining that the constitution of Nigeria said one should resign 30days before the day of the election battle. It is trite to say that the constitution is superior to any other act or law.
There were other irrelevant fake issues paraded by these PDP mad cows according to sources, but because they were inconsequential and same have been confronted with the facts, they were needless to be raised in this publication. However, below were the presentations of the written and oral addresses of both the Labour Party and PDP at the tribunal on July 15th, 2023.
The following points were, from the Written Addresses of both parties and the oral Arguments canvassed by their respective Counsel, established:
1. The Petitioners, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and PDP abandoned their Claims that Honourable Ngozi Okolie of the Labour Party (LP) did not win the Election into the Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency by a Landslide Victory by defeating Honourable Ndudi Elumelu with more than Twenty Thousand Votes.
2. The Petitioners also abandoned their Claims that the Election was rigged or was invalid and that the Tribunal should declare the Election Null and Void and order INEC to conduct fresh Election for Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency.
3. The Counsel for the 3rd Respondent, Chike Onyemenam, SAN, consequently urged the Tribunal to Strike out Grounds 14(2) & 14(3) of the Petition and paragraphs 15, 18-33 of the Petition since both Parties agree that they have been abandoned.
4. The 3rd Respondent’s Counsel now prayed the Honourable Tribunal to dismiss the entire Petition because:
5. The only Ground remaining in the Petition is the Claim by the Petitioners that Hon. Ngozi Okolie was not qualified to contest the Election for several reasons.
6. The above Counsel to Hon. Lawrence Ngozi Okolie submitted that since none of Three Witnesses called by the Petitioners adopted a Deposition or gave any Oral evidence to say that Hon. Ngozi Okolie was not qualified to contest the Election for any reason, the Petition is deemed in law to have been abandoned as the Supreme Court has decided that where a Petitioner fails to field a Witness to adopt his Deposition or fails to lead oral evidence in respect of the Petitioner’s Claims, the Petitioner is dead and cannot be revived by looking for evidence from the Opponents(Defendants) to revive a dead Petition.
7. He further cited Supreme Court decisions which recently held that the Tribunal is also not permitted by Law to start inspecting the INEC Documents and Reports tendered by the Petitioners’ Counsel from the Bar and by the INEC Witness on Subpoena without any evidence to support or link the Documents and Reports to any part of the Petition; so as to discover violations inside the Documents, because the Supreme Court has decided that such Documents dumped on a Tribunal without Oral evidence are worthless Documents.
8. The 3rd Respondent’s Counsel also cited Supreme Court Judgments which established that PDP and its Candidate do not have the Locus Standi or right to complain that Labour Party and its Candidate did not hold Primary Election for which the Petitioners equally did not lead any Oral evidence in respect of, save to tender Reports and Exhibits not linked to any Oral evidence or any part of the Petition and urged the Honourable Tribunal to dismiss the Petition for failure of the Petitioners to lead any evidence, let alone, credible evidence, to make out a prima facie case against Honourable Ngozi Okolie and Labour Party.
