The petitioner in the alleged forgery allegation against the deputy governor of Bayelsa State, who was the governorship candidate of the Liberation Movement, Vijah Opuama, in last gubernatorial election, Tuesday closed his case.
The deputy governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, will on Friday open his defence in the alleged certificate forgery brought against him.
Ewhrudjakpo will open defence at the state’s Governorship Electoral Petition Tribunal where his nomination for the deputy governorship position is being challenged.
The tribunal presided over by Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, sitting in Abuja fixed June 12 for the defence of the deputy governor after the petitioner formally closed his case on Tuesday.
The petitioner, Opuama through his counsel, Pius Danba had rested his case after calling three out of 30 witnesses billed to testify against the nomination of Ewhrudjakpo for the November 16, 2019, governorship poll.
At Tuesday’s proceedings, the petitioner who served as 3rd witness, was confronted with anomalies in his own certificate by Ewhrudjakpo’s lawyer, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN).
Ume noted that the discrepancies in the documents that the petitioner presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in aid of his qualification indicated that the issue of alleged certificate forgery was nothing more than a mere human error that should not be taken as forgery.
Before the petitioner closed his case, he had last week withdrawn his prayer on the tribunal to subpoenaed the deputy governor to give evidence in the matter.
The petitioner had withdrawn the application on the grounds that he no longer needed Ewhrudjakpo to testify for him as a witness.
Opuama is challenging Ewhrudjakpo’s qualification to stand in the Bayelsa State governorship election, on the grounds that the deputy governor submitted a forged exemption certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.
The tribunal had, in a subpoena last week Tuesday ordered the state’s Deputy Governor to appear before it on Thursday to produce the original copy of his disputed certificate, following an application to that effect by the petitioner.
Although the deputy governor initially challenged the subpoena application through a motion but however changed his mind and presented himself in obedience to the order of the tribunal.
It would be recalled that the Department of State Service (DSS) one of the witnesses who testified on behalf of the petitioner had told the tribunal that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) actually effected the change of name on the exemption certificate issued to Ewhrudjakpo.
The witness further told the tribunal that Ewhrudjakpo after noticing that there was a mistake in his name had asked the NYSC to make necessary correction.
