Nentawe Presented 49 witnesses as he closese case.
After spending three weeks in defending his Petition before the Plateau state Governorship Election Petition Against Barrister Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang and People’s Democratic (PDP)
The Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Dr. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwada has closed his case immediately after the expert witness testified and presented about two hundred pages report of the 2023 Governorship Election
In Plateau state.
The Witness, Dr. Nentawe Yusuf from University of Jos, was PW 49 .
He made a statement In paragraph 9 of his statement on oath and 11 referring to forms EC8A,EC8B.EC8C,EC8D and EC8E,When shown Exhibits C1 to C1 7 to identify while on examination in chief,he Identified the exhibits but the date is 21-6-2023 instead of 31-3-2023.
When the witness was shown some copies of duplicate results that was tendered by the Commissioner of Police, Plateau state Command,to identify them,the Counsel to the respondents objected to that vehemently that a witness can’t be shown a document to identify without tendering such documents.
Pius Akubo,Lead Counsel to the second respondents,said there is a fundamental issue that calls for attention,there was an order of tribunal that any document to be tendered by the petitioners,copies should be served to the respondents 24 hours,before tendering.
The Petitioners pleaded for a consultant report.
As my Lords can see that consultant report is bound in almost 100 pages and no copy have been served to us as ordered by the tribunal and the days of trial by ambush has gone.
The third respondents Counsel,Emeka Etiaba SAN said there is no way the Petitioners will smuggle such documents.
The Learned Counsel to the Petitioners,Yakubu Ruba responded by making a comment the learned Counsel to the Petitioners said I smuggled documents and last time,this tribunal frank at the news story of the Plateau Radio Television Corporation on same word smuggling of documents and he need to Apologize.
Etiaba then withdrawn the statement smuggle.
The tribunal rules that,in the interest of Justice, copies of the consultant report be serve to all the respondents and adjourned the matter to Friday for continuation of trial.
At the Resumption on Friday,the Witness remember of his oath he took and after the identification of the documents shown to him by the Petitioners Lead Counsel,Yakubu Ruba,applied to tender the documents despite the objection by the third respondent.
As the stage was set for the star witness to face cross Examination,the Counsel to the first Respondents,W.A Olajide draws the attention of the tribunal that the witness statement on oath is 46 pages and they were also served with the report and we can do justice to this witness,and it will help us to downsize our defence which is not humanly possible for us to cross examine him in 25 minutes.
The Counsel to the 2rd respondents,Pius Akubo SAN said they need up to one hour for the cross Examination, they caused us sleepless night.
Emeka Etiaba,Third respondents Counsel said true is that,we are in search for justice and I may not be too ambitious to ask for one hour,I need only additional 15 minutes.
The tribunal graciously added 5 minutes from the earlier 25 minutes.
The witness pass through rigorous cross Examination.
According to W.A Olajide,the counsel to the first respondents.
I will be right to say computer science deals with computers and computational systems. Response. No it is Part of it.
Ok,As a Computer scientist,You deals with software, software applications,such as Microsoft word,Excel and the likes. Yes is part of our work.
This study includes, Design,theory development and applications. Yes you are correct.
Data analyst deals with collection transformation and organization of data,am I right? Partly right.
A data analyst is someone who collects,transform, analyst and organize data in other to draw conclusion to make predictions and drive an informed decision. You are right.
Can you equally agree with me that computer science and data analyst are similar but distinct field of studies . Responded thus, data science is a subset of computer science how do you distinct them?
Question.In data analysis,when an analyst collect data,the first thing is to clean the data. No Only if the data need cleaning.
You will agree with me that cleansing is to eradicate duplicate,removal of incorrectly formated data or incomplete data. is removing what you don’t need. And these data are duplicate?
It depends on what you want because some of the duplications may be needed,it depends on the analysis.
He took the witness to his report which is Exhibit AA and asked him to compute a figure 362 + 2 equal to 364 not 365 as it is on the report.
And asked if his calculation was wrong,said yes for this one.
The Second respondent asked him whether he was specifically brief to review the Governorship Election in Plateau state Yes.
Look at your report,the title reflect the scope of brief? The witness said and letter of my engagement.
Look at your report.
Your main report begins at page one and end at page seven where you signed,yes include the tables that follows.
Is your name and signature in the table? No.
Apart from your name and signature at page one to seven,your signature and name did not appear anywhere again. It is also on the front page.
Do you agree with me that methodology adopted Is faculty,findings and conclusion will also be faulty?. Sure,he answered.
Do you also agree with me that,if the base,logic and foundation are faulty,the conclusion will also be faulty,he responded no.
The counsel also reminded the witness,page three of his report.
You used Microsoft Excel,are you aware that is prone to corruption,fraud and miscalculation?
The witness said no it does not just corrupt because it is an application.
Are you aware that throughout your 46 pages of your statement on oath,you didn’t refer to voters registers?.
Will you be surprise to know if you didn’t refer to it. Yes but I refered to it in my report.
Did you review BVAS machines. He said no.
Were you in any of the polling units covered by the table in your statement,no I was at my polling unit.
Question,Is your polling unit mentioned in that report?
Answer, is not there,I only analyse forms EC8A giving to me and if my own polling unit was there,I would have analysed it.
Look at paragraph 9 of your statement and page 410 of the petition,you made reference to forms EC8A,EC8B,EC8C,EC8D and EC8E where are they?
I submitted it to the Petitioners.
Did you attach the duplicate of the results to your report? No I believe they have been tendered.
As the third respondents took turn to cross examining the Witness,he asked him that as a scientist, You know,any assertion in a report or analysis is wrong,that report or analysis is wrong,that report cannot be reliable. And he responded in science, nothing is reliable and absolute.
Page 14 of your report,total valid votes you wrote is 333 and I will take you to the petition at page 37..please tell this honourable tribunal the total votes cast. Is 345 . Is it different? Even if there is different,the table there is after the total number of accredited voters.
Throughout your report,you didn’t get contact to any of the respondents.
I don’t need to do that.
At the end of the cross Examination,there was no reexamination in chief,the Petitioners Counsel, Yakubu Ruba SAN express his appreciation to the tribunal and his learned colleagues from the other side.
After taking 49 witnesses and tendering so many documents,so also after carefully reviewing the grounds of the petition,there is no need to proceed and call other witnesses.
There was no objection from the first respondent and said when their time comes,they will do the needful.
In his response,the second respondents did not object appreciate the Petitioners counsel and persuaded for short adjournment of one week.
The Counsel to the third respondents commend the learned Senior Counsel for not only keeping to the time but the way they handled the case.
The counsel to the Petitioners said he will not concede to the long adjournment.
The tribunal rule thus,from the circumstances before this tribunal,we need to proceed. We have a schedule and we need to proceed and adjourned to Monday,17th July,2023 for the first Respondents to open their defends,
Respondents have been reminding the Petitioners to close their case.
The counsel to the first respondents pleaded for adjournment to Wednesday because some of their staff who will testify as witnesses have been transferred and need to inform them.
The tribunal reminded them that there days start running from Monday.
And maintained the adjournment date. Monday,17-7-2023, for the INEC to open her defense.
