Date: 2011-07-14

The Chairman of the Kwara State National Assembly and Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice Ngozi Emehelu has again cautioned counsel to the State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to desist from dragging the tribunal backward.

Justice Emehelu gave the warning in Ilorin yesterday (Thursday), at the resumed hearing of the petition brought by the ACN Governorship candidate, Mr Dele Belgore (SAN), challenging the victory of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the April governorship election in the State.

The Chairman, who frowned at the delay tactics being employed by the ACN’s counsel to foot drag the inspection process, also warned that the tribunal was neither a customary court nor a lower court, hence the need by ACN to abide by the initial agreement voluntarily but lawfully entered into.

"Do you know that this tribunal is neither a customary court nor a lower court, so why would you just want to be taking us back for no tangible reasons since you have agreed to be giving copies of the scanned materials to INEC, there is no point raising an alarm demanding the tribunal to interfere in a matter that was unanimously given consent to.

"You have entered into a contract and you must abide by it for the smooth running of the process. You have to understand that we as judges, need some time to consider the evidences brought before us before giving the final judgement.

"By the next sitting, we must have exhausted 72 days out of the 180 days slated for the whole exercise. The next sitting will come up on July 21st and you need to inform the tribunal how far you have gone in the inspection exercise", Justice Emehelu told the ACN counsels.

In his submission, one of the counsel to the ACN, Yemi Akangbe said there was significant improvement in the inspection exercise from 5,000 ballot papers to 10,000.

He, however, prayed the tribunal to reverse its earlier order requiring ACN to submit copies of the inspected materials to INEC for proper record and also prayed the tribunal to extend the time of sitting from 9:00am to 9:30am.

Counsel to the PDP, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), noted that there was no basis for what the ACN counsel demanded for because there was an initial agreement between them which had not been reversed.

Counsel to Governor Ahmed and INEC, Yusuf Ola-Olu Ali (SAN) and Oladipo Durojaiye respectively observed that the reasons adduced by the ACN counsel were ridiculous, noting that they were not under duress when they agreed to give them duplicate copies of all inspected electoral materials.

Ola-Olu Ali specifically expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the tribunal’s sitting, saying that was the only way by which the tribunal could move forward.

The tribunal adjourned its sitting till Thursday, July 21, at the same venue of the State High Court premises.

Abdulwahab Oba
Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor
14/07/2011