The man paraded by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Nsima Ekere to testify as polling unit agent at Obot Akara during the Governorship elections of March 9, 2019 may have been an impostor afterall.
Nsikak Williams Ndarake, entered the witness box, claiming to be the Polling Officer for Ward 4, Unit 005, Primary School Ikpe Mbak Eyop and who presented an alleged video evidence in support of Mr Ekere’s petition, was as fake as the unverified video clip he presented, investigation had revealed.
While in the witness box, Ndarake claimed that he was an Assistant Presiding Officer in Ward 4, Unit 005 in Obot Akara, and that he was abducted to the house of Senator Chris Ekpenyong and threatened at gunpoint to manipulate election results in support of PDP. He also claimed that he recorded the video of the abduction with his phone while the gunmen were still threatening to kill him if he failed to cooperate.
Exclusive documents by our reporter however indicate that Ifeanyi Ifeyinwa Priscilla was Presiding Officer (PO) in that particular ward. The documents showed that two NYSC members, Ifeanyi Ifeyinwa Priscilla and Ndineka Chinedu as PO and APO1 respectively, while a student, Jacob Stephen Jonah was APO2 and John Daniel David, a former Corp member served as APO3.
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This contradicted the evidence of the APC Gubernatorial Candidate, witness, PW44, Williams Ndarake who identified himself at the tribunal as APO2 in unit 005, Ward 4, Obot Akara LGA.
The INEC form EC25(B) at our reporter’s disposal has proven Ekere’s witness wrong, as it contained actual names, phone numbers and designation of INEC Officials who served in the polling unit.
Nsima Ekere is facing an uphill task and remains undecided on what actually he wishes to gain from the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Uyo, after recanting his earlier demands and suing for complete cancellation of the elections.
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Ndarake, PW 44 during cross examination, had claimed that he kept his phone on the ground to record in Senator Ekpenyong’s house.
The video showed no sign that the former deputy governor was the owner of the room, and Ndarake himself admitted in court he never saw Ekpenyong throughout his stay in alleged abduction.
When asked how a phone he kept on the ground could have recorded different scenes, he now said that he kept carrying it up and dropping it again.
“All these were recorded, while a gun was pointed at your head”?
Yes my lord.
“And you were so scared that you felt like escaping from that place to save your life”?
Yes, I was really scared.”
“Are you aware that to record, you need to press some buttons and make some settings on your phone,” he was asked again.
“Yes I am aware my lord”
This was as interesting as it sounded before their lordships who may have wondered how naive some gunmen could be, that they would tolerate a victim making video recordings of their ignoble activities.
The video, which lasted less than three minutes showed no violence and no evidence that the activity in view took place in Akwa Ibom state or the house of any PDP chieftain in the state.
As Governor Udom Emmanuel’s team commences its defense today, it is obvious that there are some questions that will be put forward to Nsima and his team.
For example, how he was courageous enough to spend quality time to go and fetch materials like ballot papers from INEC without tendering them before the tribunal.
