Presidential election: Tribunal dismisses CPC’s application

Posted by admin CPC (Congress 4 Progressive Change), Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

The Presidential Tribunal sitting as the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Tuesday, dismissed the application brought by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) seeking to be declared as the winner of the April presidential election.

The panel of justices, headed by Justice Mohammed Garuba, consequently fixed today for issuance of the pre-hearing report in the petition.

CPC had filed a petition challenging the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan in the April presidential election.

During the pendency of this suit, CPC also filed an application seeking the tribunal to enter judgment in its favour over alleged refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant it access to the electoral materials as ordered by the tribunal.

In a ruling which lasted for about 45 minutes, Justice Garuba held that the order of May 24 which directed INEC to grant CPC access to bio-metric data did not mean “taking” copies but just to see it. He, therefore, resolved the first issue against the petitioner.

On the second issue of entering judgment in favour of the petitioner, the tribunal held that judgment could not be entered in default without hearing the evidence in the matter.

According to Justice Garuba, “this court must hear the matter on its merit. I, therefore, resolve the second issue against the petitioner.

“In the light of the above, the petitioner’s application lacks merit and it is hereby dismissed.”

Subsequently, the court adjourned till today for issuance of pre-hearing report.

-Tribunewp_posts