The man who boasted of calling over 100 witnesses to prove his case at the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, has caved in – Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the PDP “surrendered” today, abruptly ended his case without calling the scheduled witnesses.
The atmosphere around the tribunal was thick with disappointment written on the faces of Ighodalo’s supporters, it was learnt. According to an eye witness report, “their silence speaking louder than any words could”.
During the pre-hearing stage, Ighodalo had declared his intention to rely on over 100 witnesses to substantiate his claims but he ended up calling fewer than 20 witnesses – far short of his initial projections.
The reasons for this sudden reversal is yet unclear, but there are discontents among Ighodalo’s legal team suggesting that key witnesses Ighodalo banked on, abandoned him midway, leaving him grasping in the dark and unable to prove his case.
The alleged premature conclusion of Ighodalo’s arguments has significant consequences on the petition, it was learnt. His legal team and supporters were seen discusing in hush tones at the venue of the tribunal, wearing long faces and looking like drenched fowls caught in an unexpected downpour.
According to one of the respondents’ counsel who spoke to our correspondent, “Ighodalo had 21 days allotted to him to call his witnesses, but Ighodalo has suddenly ended his case within 10 days due to insufficient evidence which is a major setback”, he said.
According to another legal expert, “Ighodalo’s witnesses had weak testimonies and very inconsistent and contradictory. Am not sure he wants to continue to do damage to his case that way because it would do more harm than good. You can see that right from the beginning, the case wasn’t going in Ighodalo’s favour. He simply avoided a situation where the respondents will keep exploiting the weaknesses of his witnesses”, he said.
