By: Valentine Adese (JP),
The Petitions No: EPT/PL/HR/08/2023 and EPT/PL/SEN/01/2023, filed by Rt. Hon. Ibrahim Baba Hassan, former Deputy Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly and that filed by Amb. Chris Giwa and their paty, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have entered their Final Written Address stages, respectively.
While the Petition filed by, Rt. Hon. Ibrahim Baba Hassan is challenging the election won by Hon. Musa Agah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the House of Representatives for Jos-North/Bassa Federal Constituency of Plateau State, Amb. Chris Giwa is challenging Sen. Simon Mwadkon for the senatorial election for Plateau North Senatorial District.
With the closing of Defense by the 4th and 5th Respondents in both petitions on Thursday and Friday this week, the National/State Houses of Assembly Tribunal has order all parties in the two petitions, to file their Final Written Address on or before the 25th and 26th of July, 2023.
Before concluding the hearing of petition No: EPT/PL/HR/08/2023, filed by Rt. Hon. Baba Hassan and his party, the Petitioners through their Counsel, I. H. Magaji (SAN), tendered several election materials, Police report, school registers and called 3 witnesses, who testified against, Hon. Muhammad Adamu Alkali, over his alleged forged certificate of LGED Primary School, Angwan Rogo, which he submitted to INEC, among several documents, tendered through the witnesses.
The 2nd to the 3rd respondents only tendered Certified –True- Copies (CTCs) of documents from the Bar, while the 4th/5th Respondents, tendered documents, photography of pupils and called 5 witnesses. 2 were ordinary witnesses, while the remaining 3 were Subpoenaed witnesses.
In petition No: EPT/PL/SEN/01/2023, filed by Amb. Giwa and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Petitioners called a Statistician, who urged the Tribunal to declare Amb. Giwa, as the winner of the Plateau North Senatorial election, after he found out that, 1043 forms EC8As were mutilated and other results were not entered for the Petitioners.
The Petitioners also tendered huge documentary evidence from Registers, BVAS information, to result sheets.
However, INEC, Sen. Simon Mwadkon and the PDP among other Respondents in the Petition, relied on documentary evidence tendered in proving their case, while the PDP called only one witness.
You would recall that, REALITY had reported that, A Statistician, Mr. Gabriel Pam Dagyet, who is one of the Petitioners’witness, told the Tribunal under Cross Examination that, Amb. Chris had 3400 as Margin of Lead after inspecting election materials.
Dagyet added that, out of the 2255 polling unit results, BVAS and INEC materials inspected and analyzed, 1043 forms EC8A1 series were mutilated.
He also disclosed to the Tribunal that he was not paid to urge the Tribunal but his honest position after analyzing the available data.
Dagyet explained that, his analysis did not cover the entire senatorial zone, but a cluster, which are areas of interest.
Mr. Pam Dagyet told the Tribunal in part, during Exanination-in Chief and Cross-examinations by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Respondents’ Counsels that:
“I am Gabriel Pam Dagyet. I have made my statement, dated 2nd May, 2023 on Oath and it is before the Tribunal. I adopt it as my evidence in this Petition.
“I signed my statement, as a Statistician Analyst (SA). I live in Plateau State. I am a Statistician with the University of Jos and also a Consultant.
“I have gone through the Voter Registers and the BVAS. I have compared the data in some 2255 polling units in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA). Out of the 2255 polling units, 1043 were found to have different levels of non-compliance. I cannot list them off hand now, but they are contained in a report before the Tribunal.
“I conducted inspection on the materials and I know something with respect to the election because I voted so, I can not only speak on the inspection of materials. Apart from my polling unit, I did not visit any other one during the election.
“I am not an official of INEC and I do not have any reason to participate in accreditation or compilation of results in any polling unit.
“I did not read the petition in this case because, I am not a Lawyer and I did not read the replies also.
“In my statement on Oath, I did not state my place of work or my employer. I did not also state the certificates I obtained as a Statistician.
“In my paragraph one, I stated that, we worked as a team and in paragraph, 2 I made comparism with the BVAS report at the point of inspection. I did not request for the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the BVAS report, but I did requested, for the CTC of the EC8A1 series and I am of the knowledge that they have been tendered.
“I carried out the inspection of electoral materials with the Petitioners’ Counsel, but I cannot remember the date. I never referred to any date in my statement that the inspection took place.
“In Paragraph 3 of my statement, I also identified mutilated forms, but I did not list them in my statement.
“In paragraph 4, I stated that, I confirmed illegal votes, but I did not state them in my statement. However, they are contained in my report tendered in the Tribunal.
“In my paragraph 5, I stated that, I found that the Petitioners have Margin of Lead of 2400 in my report and not in my statement.
“It is true that Statisticians deal with figures. In my paragraph 6, I stated that, the 1st Petitioner, being the person with the highest lawful votes should be declared winner. However, the figures that constitute the lawful votes is not contained in my statement.
“All through my statement, I never disclosed that, I prepared a report on account of the inspection of the election materials in my statement.
“I did not attach the report of the statistical analysis to my statement that I adopted today. I did not also mention the number of polling units with observed non-compliance in my witness statement.
“I was paid as a Consultant to do the inspection job. I was not paid to urge the Tribunal to grant the reliefs in this petition. It was simply based on my statistical analysis.
“As a statistician, who analyses figures, when a job is given, we don’t select areas. Rather, you analyze area of interest. I therefore did not analyze all the results in the senatorial zone but clusters. I abide by my paragraph 6”.
However, before Mr. Dagyet was called to the witness box, the Petitioners’ Counsel, I. H. Magaji (SAN), had called one Sanni Paul Zaruma, the Jos North Secretary of the APC, who is a Legal Practitioner and a member of the APC legal team.
Zaruma told the Tribunal that he wants his party and its senatorial candidate to win judiciously
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