Saturday, 07 May 2011 22:32 .
The defeated PPA House of Assembly candidate in the April 26 election in Abia State, Mr Sidney Onyemere, said yesterday that he would provide forensic machine to test thump-prints on ballot papers at the tribunal.
“This time round, it is going to be interesting, simple and easy,” Onyemere, a legal practitioner, declared in Umuahia.
“I am going to bring in foreign experts to authenticate every claim and assertion, which I will present before the tribunal to prove my petition,” he said.
He told NAN that he would challenge the election in the tribunal because “I am weeping in hope and faith” that the judiciary would restore the stolen mandate to me.
“They tell us we have no hope, they tell us they have the judiciary and all the money to sway them,” he added.
He expressed confidence in the men appointed to head the tribunals, adding: “We have responsible men in the tribunal. I want to assure all Abians that this tribunal will give us justice whether anybody likes it or not. I do not believe that a judge can take bribe to pervert justice,” he said.
Onyemere said that as a lawyer, he had absolute faith in the judiciary and trust in God.
On the use of NYSC members as ad hoc staff, he said: “I have faith in some of them, I saw some of them resisting temptations.”
Some, he claimed, “sold their pride, compromised and raped the sanctity of democracy from their behaviour.”
He suggested that INEC employ permanent staff to conduct elections, stressing that “ad-hoc staff, though, used in most parts of the world to conduct elections, are not helping us.”
He also called for a legislation to reduce the number of political parties in the country to either four or five.
According to him, the provisions of the Electoral Act which allowed de-registration was inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution.