Kwara Guber petition: Tribunal turns down ACN prayers

Posted by admin Action Congress of Nigeria, Governors, Headlines, Kwara, Party Politics, State News Monday, July 18th, 2011

The Gubernatorial, National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Ilorin and hearing election petition filed by the kwara State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) against the victory of the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s candidate, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, yesterday , at the resumed hearing turned down the two prayers sought by the petitioner.

The Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ngozi Emehelu turned down the prayers of the ACN, which sought extension of time allotted for the inspection of electoral materials used for the April governorship election in the state from 8:00am-6:00pm and the inclusion of Saturday for the inspection.

Justice Emehelu upheld the suggestion of the INEC Counsel, Oladipo Durojaiye on the time of inspection of electoral materials at INEC headquarters and settled for 9:00am-5:30pm from Monday to Friday.
The Chairman, who also frowned at the slow pace of the inspection exercise, said the petitioner should speed up the process by ensuring that more scanning machines were provided to enable the tribunal move forward and reduce wasting of time.

At the end of submissions from both parties, the tribunal adjourned further hearing on the petition till Thursday July 14.
Justice Emehelu had earlier appealed to both parties to avoid wasting too much time on the issue and assured Kwarans that the tribunal would not fall short of expectations in the discharge of its assignment.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the petition was adjourned, the lead counsel to the PDP, Alhaji Yusuf Ola-Olu Ali (SAN) said the PDP candidate in the election, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed and his deputy convincingly won the election, pointing out that there was nothing to be afraid of.

The PDP Secretary in the State, Prince Yemi Afolayan said the ACN was not interested in winning the case but just keep on buying time to delay judgment in order to continue to keep its people together.
Afolayan observed that PDP was committed to dispose off the case in good time so that it could provide more dividends of democracy to the citizenry.

Also speaking on the matter, Counsel to the ACN, Chief Charles Edosomwan (SAN) noted that his client was not responsible for slowing down of the inspection process and expressed hope that ACN would certainly get Justice at the tribunal.

-Sunwp_posts