Sensor Newspaper

The governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Uyo has advised counsels handling cases before it to do away with unnecessary applications for adjournment so as to allow the tribunal to carry out its assignment within the mandated 180 days. The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Kwajafasha gave the advice yesterday at the resumed hearing of a petition filed by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, candidate in April 2011 gubernatorial election Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe against the election of Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio.
The chairman of the tribunal noted that the petition has suffered several setbacks, thus called on all parties to cooperate with the tribunal in order to dispose the case within the stipulated time. “Unnecessary objection would not do the tribunal any good, we therefore call on all parties to cooperate with us”, he said.
Meanwhile, fireworks has begun in the said petition as Governor Godswill Akpabio, the 1st respondent in the petition has filed application dated January 6, 2012, urging the tribunal to dismiss the petition against him. Governor Akpabio represented by his lead counsel, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) has prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition since the petitioners have failed to response to their application.
The petitioners led by Kola Awodein (SAN) however said he has filed a response to the said application by the respondents, therefore within the time frame as mandated by the Electoral Act. He urged the tribunal to hear the case on merit. The case has however been adjourned till today for further hearing.
It would be recalled that the victory of Governor Akpabio in April 2011 election and its subsequent challenge by the ACN candidate, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe has dragged too long. The earlier tribunal headed by Justice Adam Onum had on July 18 last year, dismissed the petition for being incompetent.
The three man tribunal then had in its ruling, affirmed the victory of Governor Akpabio. The tribunal also discharged the expert order made by it on July 5, 2011 and set same aside.
Not satisfied with the ruling of the lower tribunal, Senator Udoedehe moved to Court of Appeal in Calabar which also dismissed the petition for being incompetent. The Appeal Court upheld the ruling of the lower tribunal. Not still satisfied with the submission of the Court of Appeal, he later moved to the Supreme Court to seek justice.
The apex court in its ruling said the lower court erred in its ruling by not hearing the petition on merit. The court noted that the era of dismissing petition base on mere technicalities was over. It therefore returned the case to a lower tribunal to be handled by other justices. The apex court also made an express order that the petition be heard on merit.
In a related development, the National Assembly, election petition has dismissed an objection raised by the senator representing Ikot Ekpene senatorial district, Dr. Aloysius Etok for failure to fulfill the provisions of Paragraph 147 (1) the Electoral Act. The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Fatima Akinbami noted that the application by the 1st Respondent was incompetent and therefore struck it out with a cost of N20,000 in favour of the petitioner, Dr. Anny Asikpo .
Meanwhile, Dr. Anny Asikpo has told the tribunal that there was no election in the entire senatorial district. In a statement on oath at the witness   box, he said he monitored the election in 706 out of 1,120 polling units in less than 4 hours on the election date. However, he was unable to tell the tribunal how he monitored the election when he informed the tribunal that security agencies were deployed to barricade roads in order to rig election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

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