23rd October, 2015
The Legislative Election Petition Tribunal for Rivers sitting in Abuja on Friday reserved judgment in a petition filed by Isaac Kamalu of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The tribunal Chairman, Justice Mohammed Sifawa, reserved the judgment after both parties adopted their written addresses.
Sifawa told the parties that the date for judgment would be communicated to them in due course.
Kamalu had challenged the return of Josiah Olu of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Eleme State constituency in the Rivers House of Assembly.
The petitioner joined APC, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner and the Nigeria Police as co-respondents in the petition.
Earlier, Counsel to the petitioner, Ken Njimanze (SAN), while adopting his written address filed on Oct. 20, urged the tribunal to nullify the election.
Njimanze also urged the tribunal to disregard all the argument of the respondents, because the petitioner had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.
He maintained that INEC was unable to prove that elections and collation of results actually took place in the disputed wards and polling units.
Njimanze submitted that INEC did not call witnesses from each of the polling units to justify their claims.
Adopting his address, Rasheed Usamatu, Counsel to Olu and APC, urged the tribunal dismiss the petition.
Usamatu argued that the petitioner did not call any material witness to convince the tribunal that they have a valid case.
“My lord, election held in 17 wards of the constituency, results were collated and the winner was announced,” Usamatu said.
He argued that even the four wards that the petitioner alleged that there were no collation, he only call two witnesses from the four wards.
The APC lawyer, therefore, urged the tribunal to hold that the petitioner’s case was nothing but a mere academic exercise because he did not present any evidence to prove his case.
In his argument, Counsel to INEC, Alhassan Umar, urged the tribunal to hold that the April 11 State Assembly elections was conducted according to the Electoral Act.
