Presidential Election Petition Tribunal: Salami Heads Panel

The Presidential Election Tribunal on Tuesday held its inaugural sitting in Abuja with the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami leading the panel.

Proceedings was however, marred as the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, withdrew its ex-parte application it filed requesting for access to inspect electoral materials.

Following the withdrawal of the ex-part application, the tribunal struck it out.

In its place, CPC filed a new application which largely contained the same prayers like the one that was withdrawn.

Counsel to CPC, James Ocholi, a senior advocate of Nigeria, told the court that he would like to withdraw the earlier application on technical ground and substitute it with a fresh one filed on 16 May.

He told the court that he was not aware of the directive that he should serve all the respondents with the application.

Counsel to Independent National Election Tribunal, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, also a senior advocate of Nigeria, did not object to the withdrawal of the earlier application by the CPC but said he would need time to react to the new application.

Counsel to President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo, Chief Wole Olanipekun, senior advocate of Nigeria, who led other nine Senior Advocates including Dr. Alex Izinyon, did not also oppose the application but prayed the court to allow the petitioner time to serve the motion on the counsel.

Similarly, counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party, Joe Kyari Gadzama, a senior advocate of Nigeria also did not also oppose to the withdrawal of CPC’s earlier application.

After hearing all parties and striking out the earlier application, Justice Salami adjourned till 23 May for hearing of the fresh application filed on 16 May.

He further ordered that all the respondents be put on notice and that service should henceforth be through counsel to counsel to avoid delay.

Other members of the Presidential Election Petition panel are, Justices Mohammed Garba, M.A Owoade, I.I. Agbube and Obande Ogbuinya.

While speaking with journalists after the sitting, Ocholi stated that the fresh application was premised on 15 grounds.

According to him, the application is seeking the leave of the panel to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to bring some vital documents necessary to sustain the party’s petition.

Olanipekun while also addressing journalists stated that they were not afraid of the request of the petitioner.

He however said that the petition would have to furnish additional facts because the party’s request was abstract.

He said that the court could not depend on abstract to determine the petition.

He added that they have good grounds to defend their clients and that even if the ballot papers were subjected to forensic tests the result of the presidential election won by Jonathan would still stand.

In the petition, the CPC is asking the tribunal to set aside the presidential election of 16 April 2011 and organise a fresh election between the CPC and the PDP.

The party asked the tribunal to nullify the election of Jonathan on the grounds of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010.

The CPC also wants the tribunal to hold that Jonathan and Sambo of the PDP were not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.

The party stated that it would prove at the hearing that there was substantial variation in the voters’ register used by the INEC for the conduct of the presidential and governorship elections respectively and to that extent INEC and its chairman, Attahiru Jega, unlawfully manipulated the register to the advantage of Jonathan and Sambo.

It also said that in effect, INEC used different voters’ registers containing different number of voters for different elections held in Nigeria.

It claimed too that ballot papers meant for certain polling units were illegally diverted to other units and were used for ballot stuffing.

CPC alleged that there was a significant number of ballot papers missing in some polling units that were never accounted for and that affected the result of presidential election.

The petitioner also asked the tribunal to declare that Jonathan and Sambo were not duly elected in respect of Kaduna, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Kwara, Adamawa, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Cross River, Rivers, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo Anambra, Benue, Lagos, Plateau states and the FCT.

It asked the tribunal to declare that Jonathan did not fulfil the requirement of section 134 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.

CPC asked the tribunal to hold that Jonathan did not score the highest votes cast and did not secure two-third of the votes cast in all the states of the federation and the FCT.

The party asked the court to determine that the result declared by Jega on April 18, 2011 by which Jonathan was returned as elected president was wrongful, invalid and unlawful.

Other assertions made by the party are: That the election held on April 16, 2011 did not produce a winner as contemplated by the provision of the 1999 Constitution. The tribunal should therefore direct Jega to arrange another election between the petitioner and the PDP in conformity with the provision of section 134(4) of the 1999 Constitution.

—Nnamdi Felix / Abuja