ABUJA- The hearing of the election petition filed by CPC against the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan was yesterday stalled due to untidy motions.
The Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential Election Tribunal, sitting in Abuja on May 17 fixed Monday to hear a number of motions filed by the petitioner.
The CPC had approached the Tribunal to cancel the results of the April Presidential election in 24 states and FCT.
It further sought the outright cancellation of the election on the ground that the results from the remaining 13 states were not sufficient to return Jonathan as the winner of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP, Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo as well as the 37 Resident Electoral Commissioners are defendants in the suit.
The petitioner, who filed four additional motions, was seeking for leave to give examination analysis on oath.
It further sought leave to inspect election materials in INEC’s possession.
The petitioner also prayed for an extension of time to file a counter-affidavit and written addresses against the responses of the defendants to the main petition.
It also sought for an order to compel INEC to provide all the ballot papers used in the election for forensic analysis.
The defendants had responded to the action with a total of four motions and four preliminary objections against the motions filed by the petitioner.
Salami had cut short the proceedings for two hours to meet with the lead-counsel in order to evolve an acceptable modality that would assist in the quick dispensation of the motions.
He said that the motions must be neatly knit, pointing out that the motions, as currently constituted, would waste the time of the tribunal.
“Gentlemen, if we must make progress within the limit of the time we have, you all must cooperate with one another and with the court to dispose off this petition as quickly as possible.
“The court will rise for two hours for counsel to all parties to meet and discuss the fastest procedure to be used to dispose these motions.
“Already, the court has been inundated with motions that could unnecessarily stretch this petition beyond limit; we should be mindful of the fact that we have not touched the main petition yet,’’ Salami said.
Rising from the meeting, Mr. Ebun Sofunde (SAN), Counsel to CPC, announced to the court that they had a fruitful deliberation and that counsel required up to today to conclude.
Sofunde, therefore, filed an oral application for the matter to be adjourned till Tuesday to avail counsel sufficient time to meet and agree on the procedure to adopt.
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel to Jonathan, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), counsel to INEC and Mr. Joe Gadzama (SAN), counsel to PDP aligned themselves with Sofunde’s submission.
The application was granted and May 24 was fixed for the hearing of the motions.
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