The presidential election
petition tribunal has adjourned till July, 1 to entertain a motion brought by
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the June 11 proceedings of the
tribunal.
The court postponed its hearing,
following a request by the PDP through its counsel, Chris Uche, for time to
file the replies on points of law, after getting the initial responses from
parties to their application against the June 11 happenings in court.
The proceedings on June 11,
currently challenged by the PDP, had resulted in the withdrawal of an
application earlier brought by the All Progressives Congress (APC), which had
sought the dismissal of the PDP’s substantive petition on technical grounds.
According to the APC’s initial
application brought by its counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, the PDP’s application was
not properly signed because the name of the lead counsel, Levi Uzuegwu, was not
clearly written as the signatory to the petition.
Consequently the APC alleged that
the PDP’s petition was not signed by a known lawyer, since they viewed that the
name of the petition’s signatory is not the same as that of Mr Uzuegwu.
Controversies that birthed recent
request
The controversy however began
after the PDP alleged that the APC had acted in a manner that suggested an
abuse of court process because the ruling party filed two applications
bothering on the same technical objection.
In its reaction to both
applications, the PDP responded with counter affidavits to one of the motions
by the APC, but only noted that the second one was an abuse of court process.
Following that observation, the
APC requested the tribunal to withdraw the application responded to, by the
PDP.
In a further reaction, Mr Uzuegwu
noted that the request to withdraw the application already responded to, was
coming rather late.
The PDP lawyer said the matter
had gone beyond the stage in which a request for withdrawal could be made. He
therefore suggested that the application ought to have been struck out.
After much persuasion by the APC
through its counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, the Court withdrew the APC’s application
already responded to, by the PDP.
After the withdrawal, the APC
noted that it now had a single application, bothering on the same contentious
issue.
Mr Fagbemi asked the court to
address their application, after noting that the PDP filed no response to the
instant preliminary application.
In a reaction, the PDP reiterated
its argument that the court ought to have heard the earlier application, which
it had responded to.
Mr Uzuegwu argued that his
clients had a right to be heard and submitted that the court could not proceed
to rule on a request without their reaction.
Mr Fagbemi and his counterpart in
the APC, however, argued that the PDP received both applications in time for
them to have filed their responses.
Mr Fagbemi submitted that the PDP
should be held responsible for failing to file their response to the second
application within the stipulated time.
In a ruling, the Court, on June
11, agreed with the APC and ruled that the PDP ought to have filed its response
in time and adjourned to rule on the application without the impute of the PDP.
It was based on that decision
that the PDP filed its instant application, asking the court to allow them the
opportunity to be heard before a decision is reached regarding the preliminary
application.
After receiving the PDP’s latest
application, the APC and other parties responded through documents that were
transmitted to the PDP on Wednesday morning.
Current application
Subsequently, after the matter
was called on Wednesday, Mr Uche requested for time to respond to the written
addresses from parties on points of law.
“We were served this morning with
the counter affidavit and written address of the first respondents and third
respondents,” Mr Uche said.
He therefore demanded for time to
file their replies.
The tribunal adjourned till July
1, to allow the PDP reply on points of law.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com