Hearing Continues As Abia Guber Tribunal Take More Witnesses
Posted by admin | 9 years ago | 2,822 times
The Abia State electoral tribunal battle has continued yesterday as more petitioner witnesses appeared before the election tribunal.
The tribunal, on Wednesday, continued its sitting as 5 more witnesses mounted the witness box to give evidence on the April 11th and 25th governorship elections.
The witnesses from Isialangwa North, Isialangwa South, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo and Umunneochi local governments have so far brought the total number of petition witnesses to 15.
However, objections were raised at the invitation of the 4thwitness of the day – marked, PW14. This was due to the argument raised by counsel to the second respondent, Paul Ananaba, (SAN) that the petitioner could not introduce a witness that was not part of the main witness list.
In the same vein, counsel to first and second respondents joined in the objection and asked the judge not to hear the witness.
Meanwhile, counsel to the petitioner, Awa Kalu (SAN) maintained that the objection was out of place and should not be allowed to impede proceedings of the tribunal.
After the debates, the judge ruled in favour of the petitioners and granted hearing to the PW14 who was listed under the replies.
However, another issue of concern raised by parties involved was on the competence of the tribunal interpreter who was at various times accused of bias interpretation.
To this effect, the judge held that the court would take necessary decisions, should further complaints be received in that regard.
The tribunal, at the end of the day’s hearing, adjourned to Thursday, August 13th for further hearing.
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