|
Listen to article
|
Former Imo Attorney General and a commissioner-designate, Barr. C.O.C Akaolisa has responded with a rebuttal to accusations of admitting in his witness statement at the ongoing Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that there was over-voting in the Governorship election.
Akaorisa, who denied the allegation while speaking to journalists on Monday in Owerri, stated that these speculations were baseless, adding that it was part of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) propaganda.
He said: “The report said that I admitted in my witness statement that there was over
“Voting and that the principal of the school said that Hope Uzodimma did not school there; there were no such things, it is just the PDP propaganda, there was no case and they couldn’t establish any case.”
“What I was asked by their lawyer was whether the end report, the BVAS report from the end server will be the same as the accreditation sheet, that is the form EC8D and I answered no because there may be people who may be accredited and may not vote, that ordinarily the report of BVAS should be the same with that of the accreditation report but because of those who were accredited and did not vote, there is no way the results can be the same.”
Read also: Imo Guber Tribunal: WAEC Confirms Uzodinma’s Certificate
“What I was asked by their lawyer was whether the end report, the BVAS report from the end server will be the same as the accreditation sheet, that is the form EC8D and I answered no because there may be people who may be accredited and may not vote, that ordinarily the report of BVAS should be the same with that of the accreditation report but because of those who were accredited and did not vote, there is no way the results can be the same.”
Moving on with the statement, the immediate past Attorney General of Imo State said that in the just concluded cases of Obi vs Tinubu and Oyetola vs Adeleke, the court has held that the BVAS must agree with the accredited reports to arrive at a conclusive figure of the election.
“And in the case of Peter Obi vs Tinubu, the Supreme Court has already held that it is not the reports that determine the accreditation, that was what Adeleke used in the Adeleke case — they have to bring all the BVAS machines that were used but this people (Imo PDP) did not bring one single BVAS machine, they didn’t produce any BVAS.
“Also in the case of the APGA people I made it clear that there is no way you can determine the accreditation report without the BVAS machine so they have failed, the Supreme Court has said that it is not the reports that determine the accreditation report, it is the BVAS machine and the voter’s register and not the back end server’s report that you will know accreditation.
“So this was what transpired, they started carrying propaganda that I admitted there was over-voting, and nobody even asked me a question on overvoting. It is their (Imo PDP) normal thing. This is the same thing they did during Emeka Ihedioha, they will start confusing the people and build up sentiments to make it look like we have a bad case and when the court gives judgement they will start agitation.”
On the issue of the principal denying Governor Uzodimma, Barr. Akaolisa said it was all lies.
“The woman is the principal. There was no denial of the governor. She took them on and gave a very good account of herself”. He concluded by urging the general public to discontinue the normal propaganda of Imo PDP.
