House Of Reps Seat: Tribunal Strikes Out Labour Party’s Petition

The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lagos Thursday struck out the petition filed by Labour Party candidate in the House of Representatives election of April 2011 in Lagos, Prince Sunday Bamidele Aderounmu.

Aderounmu had filed the petition against his opponent, Aliu Kazeem of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, who won at the Surulere II Federal Constituency in Lagos.

The Labour Party candidate alleged that Kazeem contested the election with a forged certificate and he was not qualified to contest the election because he was an ex-convict, having been jailed in the U.S. for a drug related offence.

But delivering judgement at the Tribunal today, the NASS Election Petition Tribunal Lagos Zone Chairman, Justice A. A. Iwugwu struck out the petition on the ground that it was filed 180 days behind schedule.

Justice Iwugwe cited the Supreme Court ruling that an election petition that has stayed beyond 180 days in a tribunal has lapsed and should be dismissed.

Speaking with journalists after the judgement, Aliu Kazeem commended the tribunal, adding that he would institute an action for defamation of character against the petitioner, Aderounmu.

Kazeem stated that the Labour Party candidate in the election tampered with his certificate which he presented to the tribunal.

For this reason, he was at the tribunal with the original copy of his certificate.