Politics

PEPC adjourns hearing in Labour Party, APP petitions until May 10

Published

12 months ago

May 8, 2023

The Presidential Election Petition Court, (PEPC), has adjourned pre-hearing in the petitions filed by the Action Peoples Party, (APP) and Labour Party until Wednesday.

The five-member panel, led byJustice Haruna Tsammani had its inaugural sitting on Monday.

The court would also hear the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and its Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday.

When the petition of the Labour Party was called, Mr Levi Uzoukwu, SAN, announced appearance for the party and for Mr Peter Obi.

Uzoukwu told the panel that he had filed his clients answers to the pre-hearing questions and that he adopted and relied on same for the proceedings.

Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, who announced appearance for the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) also told the court that he had filed his responses to the pre-hearing questions on behalf of his client.

Mahmoud also told the court that he would adopt same as INEC’s answers to all the questions.

Representing the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu and the Vice-President-elect, Kashim Shettima, Mr Wole Olanipekun told the court that he had filed all the responses to the pre-hearing questions on behalf of his clients and adopted same.

In the same vein, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, representing the All Progressives Congress, (APC), told the court that he had filed answers in response to the pre-hearing questions on behalf of his client and was ready to argue same when a date was fixed.

Justice Tsammani advised parties to meet and resolve documents that they would be objecting to and those they would not object and to also harmonise their processes.

He then adjourned the matter until Wednesday at 2: 00PM.

Earlier, Justice Tsammani said that the panel had five petitions before it but that only three petitions would be heard on Monday while the other two would be taken on Tuesday.

The petitions heard were those filed by Action Alliance (AA) marked: CA/PEPC/01/2023, Action Peoples Party (APP) marked: CA/PEPC/02/2023 and Peter Obi & Labour Party (LP) marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023.

However, AA withdrew its petition and it was subsequently dismissed.

Justice Tsammani also assured the lawyers and litigants that the panel would do justice to all petitions and that all would be satisfied with the verdict at the end of the case.

He cautioned against making sensational comments and also advised the lawyers to focus on the substance of their petitions and avoid technicalities.

Other members of the panel

are Justice Stephen Adah of Asaba division of the court, Justice Misitura Bolaji-Yusuf also of Asaba, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo of Kano division and Justice Abbah Mohammed of Ibadan division.

In their separate responses, lawyers for the parties reassured the court of their readiness and willingness to make the panel’s task easy.

The Newsmen reports the tribunal will hear petitions against the result declared by INEC declaring Tinubu winner of the Feb. 25 Presidential Election.

Newsmen also reports that Obi, Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, Mr Julius Abure and other party chieftains were present in court.

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Politics

Emmanuel Agbo emerges as DG PDP Governors’ Forum

Published

11 hours ago

April 18, 2024

NewsDirect

Former Deputy National Secretary, DNS, and frontline national chairmanship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Emmanuel Agbo has been appointed as the Director General of PDP Governor’s Forum.

This was announced by the Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, during the BoT meeting of the party in Abuja on Thursday.

Agbo is expected to assist in repositioning the PDP-GF to play its role in nation building under the leadership of the Chairman, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.

He is a former Chairman of Benue State chapter of the PDP, an engineer and an experienced party administrator.

Politics

INEC set to monitor APC governorship primary election, others in Ondo— REC

Published

12 hours ago

April 18, 2024

NewsDirect

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is prepared to monitor the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election scheduled to hold on Saturday in Ondo state.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, said that the commission was not only prepared for the APC primary, but also for that of the 17 other political parties contesting the Nov. 16 governorship election.

Babalola told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Thursday that 18 political parties had notified the commission of their intentions to conduct governorship primary elections in the state.

According to the REC, as an election management body, our role is to monitor the activities of the political parties and to ensure that they conduct the primaries in accordance with the provisions of the law.

“We are empowered by the constitution under Section 153 and paragraph F (15) of the third schedule to monitor the activities of the political parties, which include the conduct of their congresses, conventions and primaries.

“So, as regards to the APC primary coming up on Saturday, which the party has adopted direct method of primary, we are ready for the monitoring.

“Our people are on the field, we are ready to cover the primary and we will make sure we report according to what we see on ground,” Babalola said.

Commenting on the reported incident of arrest of some agents of an aspirant issuing fake APC membership cards, Babalola said that only political parties could differentiate between an authentic and fake party cards.

The REC, who admonished all the political parties to play according to their party’s constitution guidelines and electoral process, said that officials of the commission would be unbiased in their role.

She implored the parties to provide a level playing ground for their aspirants.

“I will advice all political parties to play according to the rules of the parties and not to encourage any form of violence.

“And political parties should not allow hate speech that is capable of heating up the polity,” Babalola said.

Politics

Court declines to vacate order restraining Secondus, Omehia, Opara from PDP meetings

Published

15 hours ago

April 18, 2024

NewsDirect

A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed applications by former Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, and two others, seeking to set aside an order restraining them from attending meetings of the leadership of the party.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that sacked Governor of Rivers, Celestine Omehia, and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, were also affected with the order.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in separate rulings, dismissed the three separate applications filed by the trio on the ground that their motions for stay of execution of the order were wrongly filed and therefore, incompetent.

NAN reports that the judge had, on April 5, issued ex-parte orders, which among others, restrain the three PDP chieftains from attending any meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and/or Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party.

Justice Ekwo restrained them from participating in deliberations or proceedings of the meetings in any manner pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

The restraining orders were made in relation to three substantive suits filed against the three chieftains of the PDP by some members of the party in Rivers State.

NAN reports that the suit against Secondus and seven others, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/440/2024 was filed by Titus Jones.

The second against Omehia and five others, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/436/2024 was filed by Precious Wobisike, while the third, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/438/2024 against Opara and seven others, was filed by Chisa Amadi.

Secondus, Omehia and Opara had applied that the execution of the orders be stayed pending the determination of the appeals they filed, challenging the ex-parte orders.

In the three different rulings on Thursday, Justice Ekwo described the applications as incompetent.

He held that under Order 26(9)(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules (FHCCPR) 2019, what Secondus, Omehia and Opara ought to do was to apply to the court to either vary or discharge the orders, not to apply for stay.

The judge said: “By Order 26 (9) (1) of the FHCCPR 2019, it is provided that where an order is made on a motion ex -parte, any person affected by it may, within seven days after service of it, or within such further time as the court shall allow, apply to the court by motion to vary or discharge it.

“The first defendant/applicant ought to have familiarise himself with the provisions of the rules of this court before embarking on this course.

“What any person, who is affected by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court has to do is provided for in Order 26(9)(1) of the FHCCPR 2019.

“There is no law which provides for appeal against ex-parte order of the Federal High Court.

“It is trite that where there is no law in support of a process or action such process or action is considered as abuse of process of court.

“I find that there is no iota of law in support of this application and I so hold.

“The consequence thereof also has been stated by the court in a very steady manner.

“I therefore make an order dismissing this application for being an abuse of process of this court,” Justice Ekwo said in the ruling on the application by Secondus.

Justice Ekwo reached the same conclusions in respect of similar applications by Omehia and Opara.

The judge then adjourned until April 25 for hearing of a pending motions on notice for interim injunctions filed by the plaintiffs in the three cases.