Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal\u00a0 has fixed Tuesday
\nJune 30 for ruling\u00a0 on\u00a0 a preliminary objection filed by the\u00a0 Peoples
\nDemocratic Party (PDP) against\u00a0 \u00a0 the petition brought by All Progressive
\nCongress (APC) and Labour Party (LP)\u00a0 challenging the results of the
\nApril 11 governorship election in the state.<\/p>\n
Three petitions are before the three-man tribunal headed by Justice Nasiru
\nGunmi, challenging the declaration of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the People’s
\nDemocratic Party (PDP) as winner of the April 11 governorship election by
\nthe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).<\/p>\n
The petitions were filed by Chief Great Ogboru of Labour Party, Olorogun
\nO’tega Emerhor of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Mr. Paul Isamade
\nof Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).<\/p>\n
At the resumed hearing yesterday in Asaba, Justice Gunmi after hearing the
\nsubmissions of\u00a0 Dr. Alex Izion\u00a0 (SAN) lead\u00a0 counsel to Governor\u00a0 Ifeanyi
\nOkowa, on the issues\u00a0 of\u00a0 jurisdiction\u00a0 and the need for pre-trial
\nconference\u00a0 fixed 30th June 2015, for ruling.<\/p>\n
Izion\u00a0 in his preliminary objection\u00a0 asked the Tribunal to terminate the
\npetition because it lacked\u00a0 merits, having failed to applyfor pre-hearing
\nnotice as provided for under paragraph 18 (1) of the Electoral Act 2014 as
\namended.<\/p>\n
He urged the court to look at the nature of the objection, \u201cas it\u00a0 is
\nfundamental and touches on the spinal cord of the petition\u201d, adding that
\nrespondents in the objections have complied with what supreme court has
\nlaid dawn in paragraph 12(5) of the Electoral Act.<\/p>\n
He argued that the tribunal cannot collapse the hearing of the preliminary
\nobjections into the substantive matter as the pre- hearing\u00a0 will enable
\nthe court to to determine whether the suit is competent.\u00a0 He pointed out
\nthat the pre-hearing process is within the time management frame of the
\ntribunal allowed by the Electoral Act, and therefore will not truncate the
\nproceedings of the Tribunal.<\/p>\n
Counsels to\u00a0 Emerhor\u00a0 and Ogboru\u00a0 , Mr. Thomson Okpoko (SAN) and\u00a0 Dele
\nAdesina (SAN) respectively in their arguments prayed the court not to
\nallow the tribunal to go through the pre- hearing as that will waste the
\ntime of\u00a0 the court.
\nOkpoko citing section 12(5) of the electoral petition Tribunal Act , told
\nthe court that election petition has time limits, adding that at the rate
\nat which motions are been filed to terminate the petition, it could
\nprevent the court\u00a0 from hearing the case on its merits if allowed.<\/p>\n
Adesina in his submission\u00a0 told the court that section 285(6) of the
\nConstitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria\u00a0 limits\u00a0 the tribunal\u00a0 to
\n180 days, arguing that time is of essence\u00a0 to the hearing\u00a0 and
\ndetermination of the case, which if not considered will amount to
\nfundamental injustice\u00a0 to the petitioners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal\u00a0 has fixed Tuesday June 30 for ruling\u00a0 on\u00a0 a preliminary objection filed by the\u00a0 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against\u00a0 \u00a0 the petition brought by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n