INSIDE EKITI TRIBUNAL SDP 'DUMB' WITNESSES GIVE TRIBUNAL PANEL 'HEADACHE'

BY ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA 

Prosecution of an election petition is not a joking matter as any party that takes a petition to an Election Tribunal must demonstrate seriousness and assemble an iron-cast oral, documentary and electronic evidence if it hopes to see his petition succeed.

Oral evidence is an important leg in proving one's case before an election petition jury and any witness that wants to give oral evidence must be prepared for the task of proving the case of his or her party beyond the reasonable doubt.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is presently before the Election Petitions Tribunal challenging the declaration of Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) as the winner of the 2026 Ekiti State governorship election conducted on June 20.

Recall that the party and its governorship candidate, Isaac Adebayo Alade, scored 179 votes at the election. While Alade had withdrawn from the petition, the SDP is now left with the herculean task of overturning the victory secured by the ruling party (APC) with a tally of 319,224 votes.

For several days at the initial stage of sittings, the SDP failed to bring witnesses to the Tribunal acknowledging difficulties in assembling them to give evidence. But the party in nearly two weeks now has been bringing its witnesses to give evidence before the three-member panel of judges led by the Chairman, Justice Abubakar Idris Kutigi.

Since the SDP has been bringing its witnesses to the tribunal, one recurring feature is the failure of many of them to with respond to questions or to even speak up whenever they are answering questions posed to them during cross-examinations.

During oral testimonies at tribunals or regular courts, judges do their recordings through long hand (physically writing down testimonies of witnesses in their record books). In doing this, they have to listen to petitioners' counsel and respondents' counsel which all go into their records.

The records taken will allow them to pile up evidence which will assist them in preparing their rulings at any stage and the final judgment when the trial of the petition is expected to be concluded within the timeframe allowed by law.

In the course of the SDP prosecuting its case, many of its witnesses look lost, uncoordinated and appear either ill-prepared or unschooled in the task of giving evidence inside the witness box and this has brought embarrassment to the party and its lawyers.

Apart from the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Kutigi, the other two members of the panel, Justice Aminu Tukur and Justice Maurice Okediya, had to intervene and personally request the SDP witnesses to respond to questions in the best way they could to facilitate recording of their evidence.

Each time a witness enters the box, the Tribunal Chairman calmly explains the importance of listening attentively to questions from lawyers, understanding them and answering in the best way they can to assist the judges in making their recordings and for everybody present in the courtroom to hear what they say.

On several occasions, many of the SDP witnesses went dumb for several minutes with the judges personally asking from them what they wanted them to record as their testimony, and they would still remain mute.

Playing dumb to answers posed to the SDP witnesses sometimes made their counsel and counsels to INEC and Governor Oyebanji to plead with them to answer the questions which might have been mellowed down for simple understanding by the witnesses.

The drama of going dumb inside the witness box played itself out again at the Tribunal sitting of Monday, 5th October, 2026 during the testimonies of PW 38, Modupe Ayomide; PW 39, Abu Omotoso; PW 40, Rufus Adebisi, and PW 41, Adedeji Arowolo.

It was during Adebisi's evidence in the witness box that the tribunal chief expressed dismay with the conduct of the SDP witnesses and lectured their lawyer, Nnamdi Chukwudebelu, on the need to prepare them well for the task of giving evidence for them to assist the jury in their recordings.

"Why do you bring witnesses like these here? You need to always prepare them well ahead of time to make our job easier. It is not good for them to remain silent whenever they are asked questions."

Chukwudebelu who apologized to the judges on behalf of the witnesses said some of them are overwhelmed by the pressure of the witness box, facing judges and lawyers and being watched by everyone present in the courtroom.

As the SDP nears the day to close its case before the tribunal, the conduct of its witnesses will always be on the spotlight and under scrutiny and it remains to be seen how it affects the prosecution of the party's petition.