Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, CJN

The Presidential Election Tribunal will hold its inaugural sitting in Abuja next Tuesday, THISDAY has learnt.

A senior counsel, who is one of the lawyers engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said the inaugural sitting should have taken place Wednesday.

The shift in the commencement of the tribunal’s sitting may not be unconnected with the sudden death of the wife of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, which occurred last Saturday.

Many justices were said to be preparing to attend the funeral billed to take place on Saturday in Benue State. 

Mrs Mimi Katsina-Alu died at her husband’s village at Tsailu near Lezhor in Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue State.

At the inaugural sitting, preliminary issues including the application by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to inspect electoral materials will be disposed of to pave the way for the proper hearing of the substantive petition.

As at press time, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, had yet to make public the names of the five justices that will hear the presidential election petitions.

The party asked the tribunal to nullify the election of President Goodluck Jonathan on the grounds of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010.

In the petition which was filed by Ebun Shofunde (SAN), Abubakar Malami (SAN) and Alasa Ismail, the CPC is further asking the tribunal to set aside the presidential election of April 16, 2011 and organise a fresh election between the CPC and the PDP.

The CPC also wants the tribunal to hold that Jonathan and Sambo of the PDP were not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.

The CPC stated that it would prove at the hearing that there was substantial variation in the voters’ register used by the INEC for the conduct of the presidential and governorship elections and to that extent INEC and its chairman, Attahiru Jega, unlawfully manipulated the register to the advantage of Jonathan and Sambo.

It also said that in effect, INEC used different voters’ register containing different numbers of voters for different elections held in Nigeria.

They claimed too that ballot papers meant for certain polling units were illegally diverted to other units and were used for ballot stuffing. 

CPC alleged that there was a significant number of ballot papers missing in some polling units that were never accounted for and that affected the result of presidential election.

The petitioner also asked the tribunal to declare that Jonathan and Sambo were not duly elected in respect of Kaduna, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Kwara, Adamawa, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Cross River, Rivers, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo Anambra, Benue, Lagos, Plateau states and the FCT.

It asked the tribunal to declare that Jonathan did not fulfil the requirement of section 134 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.

CPC asked the tribunal to hold that Jonathan did not score the highest votes cast and did not secure two-third of the votes cast in all the states of the federation and the FCT.

They also asked the court to determine that the result declared by Jega on April 18, 2011 by which Jonathan was returned as elected president was wrongful, invalid and unlawful.

Other assertions made by the party are:

*That the election held on April 16, 2011 did not produce a winner as contemplated by the provision of the 1999 Constitution.

*The tribunal should therefore direct Jega to arrange another election between the petitioner and the PDP in conformity with the provision of section 134(4) of the 1999 Constitution.

-ThisDay

Posted by admin on May 12 2011. Filed under Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Headlines, Judiciary, Latest Politics, Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry