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- Ex-AGF leads APC, Uba Sani’s defence
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
A 3-man panel of the governorship election petition Tribunal handling the petitions filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its gubernatorial candidate, Hon Mohammed Isa Ashiru, against the All Progressive Congress (APC), its candidate, Uba Sani, and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been inaugurated and began sitting in Kaduna on Thursday.
In his inaugural speech, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Victor O Oviawe, promised to ensure that the Tribunal upholds and works within the ambit of the provisions of the constitution.
Justice Oviawe averred that the Tribunal will be just, and fair and do the right thing in the interest of the public, while he also disclosed that five petitions are before the court.
Speaking further, the tribunal chairman sought the cooperation of the Bar to enable the court to timely delivery in line with the provision of the electoral act.
Other members of the panel are Justice D.A Damulak and Justice N Nonye.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Kaduna branch, Tajudeen Muhammed, assured the panel of the NBA’s support, adding that the Bar will give utmost cooperation to the Bench throughout the process of the case.
The APC and Uba Sani team of senior lawyers was led by the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Bayo Ojo, SAN.
Speaking to Reporters in an interview shortly after the court session, Ojo said, “Today, we are here for the inaugural sitting of the tribunal as you heard the Chairman said and my response to that; We have pledged our cooperation to ensure that, the sittings go very well, while we are going to defend our client to the best of our ability”.
The PDP team of senior lawyers was represented by Prof. Francis Kwede, the Dean, faculty of law, university of Jos on behalf of the lead Counsel, Samuel Atung, SAN.
However, speaking with Reporters, Prof Kwede said, “From what transpired it is an inaugural sitting of the tribunal, I assure you that there will be justice, as members of the Bar we want to assure the tribunal that justice will be served in this matter. In this matter, I have confidence that at the end members of the public will see that justice has been done, at the end of the day justice will be done”.
Also speaking in an interview with reporters after the court session, the Kaduna State PDP Chairman, Hassan Hyet said, “This inaugural sitting is a long-awaited day. We are happy that the Chairman of the Tribunal has promised to be fair and do justice to whoever justice is due. Our prayer is that, at the end of the day, the Tribunal will do justice to all the parties and the people of Kaduna State”.
The PDP had earlier challenged the victory of the Kaduna state Governor, Mallam Uba Sani of the APC, with the claims that the last governorship election in the state was manipulated in favour of the incumbent Governor.
Meanwhile, the ruling APC had discarded the claims, saying that the election that ushered in Sen. Uba Sani was free, fair and credible.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had also insisted in its reply to the petition marked KPT/KD/GOV/4/2023 and filed on 6 May 2023, that the incumbent governor and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Uba Sani, won the election fair and square and lawfully returned as the victor.
To this end, INEC had invited the Tribunal to note a major constitutional error in the petition brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the outcome of the 18 March 2023 poll.
The reply of the Commission contained both its preliminary objection to the petition brought by PDP and its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru and a point-by-point response to all the allegations raised by the petitioners, against the conduct of the poll and its final outcome.
The leader of a team of Senior Advocates, Abdullahi Aliyu, also listed 29 documents which the Commission would rely on, if the petition isn’t dismissed at the preliminary stage and gets to full trial.
In its preliminary objection highlighting the 47-page reply, the electoral body claimed that the constitutional error being signalled has rendered the judicial challenge mounted by the petitioners, incompetent, and only fit, for dismissal.
“Results of polling units being disputed by the petitioners were also analysed in the reply of the electoral body, which also indicated that it would be calling witnesses from its Election Operations and ICT Departments, to prove the integrity of the poll and the votes scored by each of the participating candidates”.INEC stated in its preliminary objection.
