Plateau Governorship Tribunal : Gov. Lalong Accuses INEC  Of Over Voting, Calls 4 Witnesses

Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State has continued the prosecution of his defense today, in petition EPT/PL/GOV/01/2019, by calling Four (4) witnesses to testify in his favour.

 

The witnesses included a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, who also, was a former Plateau State Head of Service, Luka Fangyil (Esq).

 

Governor Lalong, who tendered another 43 documents through his Counsel, Lateef Fagbami SAN, also called one Ringpon Byetla from Langtang North, Dung Bitrus, from Barkin-ladi, and Lan Joseph Choji from Hiepang Ward to prove his claims of over voting in their respective Polling Units and Voting Points.

 

From the record of the Tribunal, the 2nd Respondent, being Governor Lalong of Plateau State, has tendered 97 documents as exhibits before the Tribunal as at today.

 

You would recall that the petitioners in their petition have also pleaded over voting as a ground, as they challenge the governorship election conducted by INEC that brought Governor Lalong and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power in the state.

In his testimony before the Tribunal today, Fangyil told the Tribunal that he was the agent of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents to the petition, being Governor Lalong and APC respectively, at the Governorship collation center and that his testimony, which he has adopted before the Tribunal, were mostly based on the reports he got from the agents across all the levels of collations during the governorship elections in the state.

 

Mr. Luka Fangyil, who identified forms EC8D,   EC8E and Form CF001, as the summary of the results of the governorship election, the declaration of the results and the form of the personal particulars of Governor Lalong respectively, added that, he has known Governor Lalong for the past 30 years and that Lalong has been using the name: Simon Bako Lalong, to contest and win elections in Plateau state especially, as member for the Plateau State House of Assembly.

 

Fwangyil who claimed he witnessed the collation from beginning to the end, Adding that, “From the reports I received, the elections was peaceful, free and fair without no electoral malpractice and the scores in form EC8D, which is the summary of the governorship results was based on the scores that all political parties that participated in the elections of 9th and the rerun of 23rd March, 2019, when the collation was done and the 2nd and 3rd Respondents were declared winners.

 

THE PETITION

“Form CF001 is the form that was filled by the 2nd Respondent and submitted to INEC as his personal particulars. This form was published prior to the lection and I had the privilege of seeing it before it was submitted to INEC, at its Head quarters in Jos. It was also published at 17 LGAs of Plateau state because I saw it in Mangu LGA.

 

“I have known the 2nd Respondent for about 30 years. In 1999m he contested election into the Plateau State House of Assembly and he used the name, Simon Bako Lalong. I know him with that name, as worked with him. in 2003, he also used the name and won and also became the Speaker of the House. In 2015, he also contested for governor with the name and I was his collation agent at the collation center”.

 

However, under cross examination by Counsel to the petitioner, Benson Esq, Mr. Luka Fangyil told the Tribunal that he never attended any school with Lalong. Be it Primary, Secondary or Tertiary and that they were never classmates even at the Nigeria Law School. He said he was not at all the polling units at the same time on election day and cannot remember the number of polling units in Plateau state off hand, but that its within the range of 4000.

 

Mr. Luka said he is not the maker of the documents he identified, but he received duplicates of the documents and has handed them over to the Party, while the originals are with INEC.

 

Earlier, the petitioners had object to Mr. Luka Fangyil identification of the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the documents he was asked to identify by P.A. Akubo SAN, Counsel to Lalong, but the Tribunal reserved its ruling to the final judgment.

Source: Realitynewspaper.com.ng