RIGHT-CLICK, SAVE AND DOWNLOAD THE 203-PAGE COMPROMISED JUDGEMENT OF ALI GARBA RETRIAL PANEL
 

 

PDP Lawmaker Loses Round One At Retrial Tribunal

Jul 19th, 2010 | By admin | Category: NEWS

THE Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Osogbo, Osun State capital, has dismissed the preliminary objection filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker representing Osogbo State Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Mr Adeoye Adelakun, against the petition filed by the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) over the rerun election held in the constituency last year.

The Justice Mohammed Danjuma-led tribunal ruled that dismissing the petition at the preliminary stage based on the argument of the lawmaker’s counsel would make no sense, as it would not represent substantial justice but technicality.

The state chapter of the PPA, through its chairman, Alhaji Adetunji Oyolola had filed a petition before the tribunal, challenging the rerun election held in Osogbo State Constituency through which the PDP lawmaker was purportedly elected to the state House of Assembly.

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal, sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State capital nullified the election of Honourable Akintunde Adegboye, who was representing the constituency then and ordered a rerun poll on the ground that the logo of the PPA was not included in the ballot papers used for April 14, 2007 election in the constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, the state chapter of the Action Congress (AC) boycotted the rerun election, saying that the INEC failed to comply with the provision of the Electoral Act, which provides that voters register should be reviewed and revised every two years, a situation, which the party believed, could lead to the rigging of the rerun poll.

After the poll, the PPA filed a petition against the rerun election on the ground that the election was held in total non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2006.

Other respondents in the petition are the PDP (2nd respondent), INEC (3rd respondent) and its officials who participated in the conduct of the poll.

However, the first respondent in the matter, Adelakun, filed a preliminary objection dated February 23, 2010 to the petition, praying for an order of the court dismissing the petition.

Arguing the preliminary objection on Tuesday, counsel to the lawmaker, Mr Kazeem Badmus said that the petition was fake and characterized by fundamental inconsistencies, as the name of the petitioner as identified in the petition, ‘People’s Progressive Alliance’, instead of ‘Progressive People’s Alliance’ was not known to law.

According to him, ‘People’s Progressive Alliance’ as put on the petition, is not a registered political party in Nigeria, noting that ‘Progressive People’s Alliance’ could have been the correct name of the petitioner.

The counsel further noted that the petitioner displayed mis-joinder and non-joinder of necessary parties in the matter, adding that the petition was presented by somebody appear not be representing the PPA in Osogbo local government, just as he prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition for being incompetent, irregular and abuse of court process.

Badmus further noted that dismissing the preliminary objection would amount to repairing the case of the petitioner, citing the case of Ministry of Federal Capital Territory Vs Abdulahi, reported in 2010, All Federation Weekly Law Report, part 507, page 179 at pages 195 to 196.

Objecting to the preliminary objection, the petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Kunle Adegoke argued that the mis-statement of the name of the petitioner on the front cover of the petition was just a mistake of counsel, saying that this was buttressed by the first paragraph of the petition, where the name was correctly stated.

To show that the signatory to the petition could not have detected the error before signing it, Adegoke argued that the signature page correctly reflected the name of the petitioner.

He argued: “My Lords, all the fifteen witness statements filed with the petition correctly reflected the name of the petitioner. It is submitted that where it is amply demonstrated, as in this case, that the mistake is an error of counsel, your lordship is persuaded not to base your decision on technicality, which my learned friend has sought to rely on. I commend to your lordships, all the authorities cited in our counter-affidavit, especially the case of HDP Vs INEC, where the court held that your lordships have power to take judicial notice of existence of a major stakeholder in an election matter.

“This type of case is so crucial that the court even allows application for amendment for the court to recognise the correct name of the party in issue. On this, we rely on the case of Agbakoba vs INEC, reported in 2009, 24 Weekly Report of Nigeria, page 1, at pages 35 & 36. I recommend this case to my lords and prayed that you discountenance the preliminary objection.

“On the issue of proper person to present the petition, the argument of my learned friend is standing on a banana peel, because the character which they are referring to as PPA chairman, Kayode Dairo, was expelled from the party prior to the filing of the petition. Exhibit DA1 in support of the counter-affidavit, the last paragraph of it states that the subscriber of this petition, Adetunji Oyolola, is the chairman of PPA in Osun State,” he argued.

He then urged the tribunal to discountenance the preliminary objection and allow the matter to be decided on its merit.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the tribunal chairman agreed with the submission of the petitioner’s counsel that the reflection of ‘People’s Progressive Alliance’ was a mistake of counsel because the name was correctly stated in the subsequent paragraphs of the petition, saying that in the interest of justice, dismissing the petition based on mistake of counsel would make no sense.

According to him, justice could only be done if the court focuses on substantial justice and not technicalities.
On the issue of misjoinder of parties in the petition, the tribunal held that the necessary parties in the matter had been joined by the petitioner and on the issue of the position of the person who presented the petition, the court held that whoever the chairman of the party might be, it was immaterial because the tribunal lacks jurisdiction to entertain such issue.

The panel then dismissed the preliminary objection for lacking in merit and corrected the name of the petitioner to read ‘Progressive People’s Alliance’ instead of ‘People’s Progressive Alliance’, as earlier indicated on the petition. It stated that the petition was competent and shall be heard on merit.

Other cases that came up for hearing on Tuesday included the retrial of the case involving the AC House of Representatives candidate for Ijesa-South Federal Constituency, Ajibola Famurewa against Gbenga Onigbogi of the PDP; AC House of Representatives candidate for Irewole/Isokan/Ayedaade Federal Constituency, Alhaja Ayo Omidiran against Olubunmi Etteh of the PDP; AC House of Assembly candidate for Ede-North State Constituency, Debo Akanbi against Adejare Bello of the PDP; and AC House of Assembly candidate for Ife-East State Constituency, Bashir Adeyela against Jide Adeyeye of the PDP.

In all the four cases for retrial, the PDP counsel had brought application for inspection of the election materials used for the polls in 2007 and the tribunal had granted same. None of the parties objected to the applications.

Also, the tribunal had ordered that the INEC should make available for inspection, the election materials used for the rerun election in Osogbo State Constituency.

However, the cases of Famurewa against Onigbogi, Omidiran against Etteh and PPA against Adelakun had been adjourned till August 16, while the cases of Akanbi against Bello and Adeyela against Adeyeye had been adjourned till August 19 for report on the inspection of the election materials.

By KAZEEM MOHAMMED

Other Related Stories

Tags: ,

One comment
Leave a comment »

  1. tejumola lateef adesina July 20th, 2010 3:43 pm :

    what i know is that only God can come for our rescue and retrieve our stolen mandate for us bcos, Nigeria judiciary they are all failed

Leave Comment