Akwa Ibom APC Guber candidate, Umana Okon Umana hopeful of victory at the tribunals.

Governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for Akwa Ibom State, Umana Umana, took the stand at the governorship election tribunal and was cross examined by the respondents. Umana is at the tribunal, challenging the declaration of Udom Emmanuel as winner of the April governorship election.

According to DailyTrust news online, the Akwa Ibom governorship election tribunal began at 10:30am with video evidence that was displayed via a projector screen for all to see. The seven video exhibits were shown one after the other and each one more damaging than the next. The petitioner's (Umana Umana & APC) team was led by Dayo Akinlaja, SAN, Sen Ita Enang with 10 others and for the 1st respondent (Udom Emmanuel) led by Paul Usoro, Offing Offiong, SAN and 10 others, 2nd respondent (PDP) led by Adekunle Oyesanya and 4 others, while for the 3rd & 4th respondent (INEC & REC) led by Tobechukwu Nweke.

The first set of videos showed Umana addressing the press and highlighting the case of election fraud in his polling unit on the day of election.
The next video showed him having a  discussion with the Electoral Officer who was confirming that election materials were indeed carted away while he expressed a sense of helplessness to the fact no election could be held in his jurisdiction on the day of election.
The 3rd video showed a set of INEC ad hoc staff (youth corpers) stamping ballot papers behind INEC office days after the election.
 The 4th video showed a PDP Local Government Chairman presiding over a massive operation of ballot box stamping using thugs.
The 5th video showed a police truck and an Akwa Ibom State Corporation bus allegedly used to cart away election materials and intimidate voters who dispersed in fear.
The 6th video showed bandits caught with election materials and interviewed by those who stopped them.
The 7th video showed a collation centre and how the spurious marks were tallied and written on forms.
A bonus video showed how the announcement of results by the REC on April 12, 2015 was indicative of election fraud due to a freudian slip by Returning Officer James Epoke, as he said boldly we 'GAVE' 10,598 votes to Accord Party.

DailyTrust news futher confirmed that the videos  caused uproar, as the viewers expressed horror over what they described as the systematic election rigging against the Akwa Ibom People. This introduction made it difficult to really cross-examine the witness as the Respondents started badgering the witness with questions. Akinlaja had to interject severally to calm both parties down.
The INEC lawyer did ask if Umana knew what the procedure for manual accreditation and it wasn't quite clear if he did but he insisted that there were no prerequisite materials to have an election. Umana did state that there were few signs of elections in 11 LGA'S where he would have won if elections actually took place.
The PDP lawyer also asked Umana what senatorial zone he came from, in which he retorted, saying unlike some people he actually hails from North East as reflected in the results sheet.

After the testimony, sitting was adjourned till Wednesday August 26, 2015 where expert witnesses from the forensic team will be called to take the stand.
Speaking after the session, Umana expressed happiness with the trend of events in the past two days. He noted that  on Thursday, he recoded gains as seven out of his eight applications were in his favour.   He said he is very hopeful of victory.