WADA AND HIS CRUMBLING CASE
By Omeiza Shadrach, E.
Seated like a participant in a popular program titled, "Who wants to be a millionaire", Idris Wada, one of the challengers of Governor Yahaya Bello's mandate, adopted his witness statement on oath, having been sworn to an oath to say nothing but the truth as he gives his evidence as a star witness in the case.
The counsel to Wada laboriously led him through the examination-in-chief, tendering series of documents including a photocopy of Wada's PVC, which are really not relevant to the petition. At the tail end of the examination-in-chief, Wada was asked what he wants the Tribunal to do for him, and he said "I want the Tribunal to declare me the winner of the kogi state election"! Within me, I said, "If wishes were horses, beggars will ride".
Then the time came when his evidence was subjected to judicial scrutiny, and in no time, Wada crumbled his case by himself all alone as we will soon see.
I will try to give some of his responses to the cross-examinations which he gave to the peril of his case at the Tribunal. Wada's henchmen confided in me in a sniveling voice I ever heard that, "our oga is trapped!", my status being unknown to them.
The Counsel to GYB asked Wada, the following questions:
1. whether he agree that the election was inconclusive, and he answered yes, that the election was inconclusive.
2. Whether there was any independent candidate that ran in the election, wada answered no.
3. whether he is a member of APC, he said no. The counsel posed, why is he then bothering himself with the affairs of another party? Wada got angry and said, "Yahaya Bello did not fulfill the requirements of the law, he just came up like that!"
4. He claimed that Alhaji Yahaya Bello was a "nominator" not a "candidate". He was then asked to differentiate between the two, he gave an incoherent answer and looked unassuming. The counsel went further to ask whether he knew that before a person stand as a candidate for an election, the person must have passed through all the stages and fill all the necessary forms bearing "candidate" and Wada answered in the affirmative.
5. Whether what he saw on the ballot papers was his name or the logo of the party, he answered, it was the logo of the party.
6. Whether the election was declared inconclusive because of Audu's death and he answered no and that the election result was not announced because of Audu's death.
7. Whether it is right to say that, the result of the inconclusive election showed that he had 6 local governments as against 15 local governments of APC, he answered yes.
8. Whether the results of the elections of 22 November, 2015, which he lost produced a valid results and he answered yes.
9. He was asked following his claim that the AGF directed the INEC to pick Alhaji Yahaya Bello, whether he has any document to support his claim and he answered no.
10. Whether he was aware that APC gave a notice to INEC of the death of their candidate, he answered yes.
11. Whether he was aware that Alhaji Yahaya Bello came second during the APC primary elections, he answered yes.
12. Whether he was aware that it was the INEC that requested for substitution, he answered yes.
13. Having claimed that, he should be declared a winner being a surviving candidate with a highest score of votes, because the votes of Audu died with him. The Counsel asked him whether he participated in the supplementary election, he answered yes. Wada was then queried that if he won the election before the supplementary election, why did he then go ahead to participate instead of boycotting the election? He was lost at this point.
From all the answers provided by Wada during the cross-examination, it was clear that no Tribunal or Court can safely take them as a credible evidence in the petition. Idris Wada succeeded in causing irredeemable damage to his case. This damage to the case was visible in the countenance of his Wada's counsel, the more reason he hurriedly close their case and abandoned the prospective witnesses in their case.
It was a sight to behold as all the confidence Wada had before ascended the witness box to give evidence evaporated within a second.
That's simply a boost to the defence and the victory of Governor Yahaya Bello.
Sent from RealOne Emeje iPhone
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