A Criminal Court 1 of the Edo High Court, on Wednesday, admitted in evidence a certified copy of the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) certificate against lawmaker-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA), Mr Ugiagbe Onaiwu.
Onaiwu is one of the 14 lawmakers elect, who refused to present themselves for inauguration in June 2019, when Governor Godwin Obaseki issued the proclamation instrument.
The 14, whose seats had since been declared vacant by a Port Harcourt Federal High Court, had rather preferred to pitch tent with the erstwhile National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, as the former labour leader fought for the soul of the party with his estranged political godson, Obaseki, in the build-up to the 2020 governorship election, which the governor won on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court presided over by Justice Efe Ikponmwoba admitted the certified copy of the WAEC result, after listening to the arguments on the admissibility of the document from counsels to both the complainant and defendant, Peter Ojo and Paul Osarenkhoe respectively.
A staff of the WAEC, Mrs Dupe Elemikhena, who was subpoenaed by the court, had acknowledged the tendered document to be a certified one by the council.
In their argument against the admissibility of the document, Osarenkhoe called for its rejection on the ground that the subpoenaed staff of the council is not the maker of the document.
Osarenkhoe also premised his argument on the fact that relevancy is not only the yardstick for admissibility.
In his counterargument for the admissibility, counsel to the State, Ojo, argued that the first rule of admissibility is in the relevance of a document.
“Since the document is relevant, it should thus be accepted and admitted in this case,” he stated.
Justice Ikponmwoba subsequently adjourned the case to June 30 for the complainant to call his last witness on the case.
It would be recalled that the State had instituted a legal action against the APC EDHA candidate for the 2019 general elections on the allegation of forgery and impersonation of the results he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the poll.
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