Tribunal adjourns indefinitely hearing on Jonathan presidency petition

The petition filed by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) challenging the result of the 2011 presidential election has run into stormy waters, as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, has adjourned indefinitely, hearing on President Goodluck Jonathan application asking it to dismiss the petition because it was filed on Sunday, which was a non-working day.




Presiding judge, Ayo Salami, adjourned indefinitely the tribunal's ruling on whether to dismiss the petition or not.

At yesterday's sitting, Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Mr Jonathan, said Sunday was a non-working day and that the registry of the court, under the applicable rules, is not to be opened on a Sunday for the transaction of any business.


Mr Olanipekun further argued that the CPC could not show cause why they filed the petition on Sunday, since they had two more days to exhaust the 21 filing days as guaranteed by the Electoral Act and cited a statute, Sunday of Servant Act of 1677, which states that "no public business should be carried out on Sunday."

The lawyer also said the tribunal should dismiss the petition because it was not properly constituted, as Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Bakare, for whose benefit the petition was filed, were not made parties to the petition.

Mr Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are challenging the legitimacy of the petition filed by the CPC seeking to nullify the April 16 presidential election. In the objection, Mr Jonathan and PDP said that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the petition.
Joe Gadzama, counsel to the PDP, aligned himself with Jonathan's counsel to seek the dismissal of the petition.
"The prayers/reliefs of the petitioner cannot be granted in the absence of Buhari and Bakare," Mr Gadzama said.

He also said the petition, having been filed on Sunday, which is a non working day, should be dismissed.

The lawyers said the petition was a gross abuse of the processes of the court and that it dealt with hypothetical and academic issues, which could not be determined by the court.
According to Mr Jonathan and his running mate, Namadi Sambo, the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the petition because some of the grounds relied upon by the petitioner were pre-election matters which could not be determined by an election tribunal.

Open for business

But Ebun Sofunde, counsel to the CPC, told the court that the provisions cited by Mr Olanipekun cannot be read in isolation of Section 150 of the Evidence Act.
According to him, it has not been suggested that the petitioners forced the registry of the court open, saying it is the person objecting to the validity of the filing that ought to file an affidavit that there was no directive for the registry to open, even as he submitted that the question of the last day of filing is totally irrelevant.

He urged the court to dismiss all the objections raised and allow the petition, more so that two of the reliefs sought by the petitioners were not attacked.
"Since the tribunal registry was open for business on Sunday, it makes the petition deemed as properly filed," he said.

Joined as defendants in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission, its chairman, Attahiru Jega; Goodluck Jonathan, Namadi Sambo, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Resident Electoral Commissioners for the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The CPC is contesting the result of the election in about 20 states of the federation. Though a copy of the petition was not made available to journalists, Mr Sofunde said the election was non-complaint with the Electoral Act 2010 alleging irregularities.
They are to call 151 witnesses to prove their case.

The tribunal had recently ordered the INEC to provide to the CPC the list of local contractors engaged by the commission to print ballot papers used in the presidential election.
The tribunal had granted the application of the CPC, seeking its order directing INEC to allow it unfettered access to ballot papers and other electoral materials used in the April presidential election in the custody of the electoral body.

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