CPC has no case against Jonathan -INEC •Says presidential election result stays

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, urged the Presidential Election Tribunal sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja to dismiss the petitio n filed by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) challenging the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and to uphold the result of the presidential election as credible, free and fair.
INEC made the submission, just as the PDP expressed confidence that President Jonathan’s election would be validated by the tribunal.
The electoral body told the five-man panel of justices led by Justice Kumas Akaahs that the election that produced President  Jonathan was adjudged to be free and fair by both local and international observers as well as a majority of Nigerians.
INEC had, on Monday, opened its defence at the ongoing presidential tribunal and called two witnesses who participated in the conduct of the election in Anambra and Enugu states.
The witness from Anambra State, Professor Boniface Egboka, a hydro-geologist and Vice Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, was the collation officer for the state during the presidential election and adjudged the conduct of the election in the state to be free and fair while debunking the depositions made by witnesses called by the CPC concerning the state.
The don told the tribunal that he actively participated in all the events that led to the conduct of the election, from collection to distribution of all electoral materials, accreditation, voting and collation of results from ward level to the state level, where he personally collated and submitted to the chief returning officer, in his capacity as the state’s collation officer.
On the allegation by the CPC that collation of results was done at Barnhill Hotel in Awka, Professor Egboka  denied the allegation and stated that the collation of results in the state was at the INEC headquarters in Awka, the state capital. He maintained that he collated results from local governments area in the state only at the legally designated centre, which was the INEC state headquarters.