Taraba Election: Tribunal Chairman Cautions against Delays

Gombe tribunal commences hearing of petition against Dankwambo

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja and Segun Awofadeji in Gombe

    The Chairman of the Taraba State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, Justice Musa Abubakar has cautioned parties in the petition before it against acts that encourages delay in the hearing of the petition.


Justice Abubakar gave this warning Tuesday, while attending to the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the State, Aisha Al-Hassan, challenging the victory of governor Darius Ishiaku in the April 11 gubernatorial elections.

The APC candidate had joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the petition against the governor’s election.

Shortly after the tribunal resumed sitting, its chairman appealed to parties in the petition to be mindful of the limited time the tribunal has to hear and determine the petition before it.

However, Justice Abubakar expressed disappointment when the sitting of the tribunal was cut short as a result of non-service of the petition on the PDP on time.

The counsel to the to the PDP, Solomon Akoma (SAN), while speaking at the tribunal, begged the court for enough time to respond to the issues raised in the petition, adding that they were not served with the petition on time.

Akoma, also said he has challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal and that until that is determined; the petition cannot be heard on its merit.

Responding, counsel to the petitioner, Mahmud Magaji, opposed the PDP’s position in the matter saying that the objections to the petition and the main suit can be heard at the same time in order for the court to deliver one judgment.

Magaji cited Paragraph 12 (5) of the Electoral Act 2010, which gives the tribunal the power to hear and determine the issue of jurisdiction and the petition together. The matter was however adjourned to Friday July 31, 2015.

Speaking with journalists shortly after the matter was adjourned, the Counsel to the petitioner, noted that failure to serve the PDP on time was not intentional, of which Akoma countered the claim, saying it was a deliberate attempt to stall the matter.

Also speaking, the APC governorship candidate Al-Hassan expressed confidence in the tribunal saying, she is optimistic that she will be given fair hearing.

  Meanwhile, the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Gombe yesterday commenced hearing the petition against Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo and others by the All Progressives Congress and its gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya.
Mohammed Sirajo, Chairman of the tribunal however adjourned sitting till today for continuation of the hearing.

Before the adjournment, the tribunal ordered the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to produce all the documents used for the election in all the polling units in Gombe State.

Counsel to the respondents argued that the documents they requested should be streamlined to the 670 polling units under contest, but had their pleas turned down by the tribunal.

“They (Inuwa Yahaya and others) have started by tendering all the results from all the poling units. You would have heard that we were objecting because we felt, having stated the particular-polling units in which they were objecting to, we felt they should restrict themselves to those particular units.

  “But the tribunal which I think there is no problem as far as I am concerned said we should allow them to tender all the EC8As.

  “That is the results in respect of the entire polling units in Gombe State, which is 2,168 polling units. But if you go through their petition, what they are complaining against is about 677 polling units”, said Isiaka Ibrahim, Counsel to Gov. Dankwambo.

Ayoola Ajayi who held brief for Adeniyi Akintola said they were able to tender forms EC8A and EC8B regarding the eleven local governments that make up Gombe State.

Akintola, SAN, lead Counsel for the petitioners said despite that INEC had eventually produced these forms, there were still some others they ought to release to them.

“Up till now, some of them are yet to be certified. For instance the ballot papers are still there with them. You could see from the ones we tendered today--form EC8A and form EC8B, many of them are still missing, they are not available.

“And some of the results posted there were posted into the card readers on the data base”, Akintola explained.

Meanwhile, the panel had been reconstituted with the chairman and one of the other three members changed, an action all the counsels said they were comfortable with.