Orji Urges Tribunal To Quash PPA’s Petition

Gov Theodore Orji of Abia has urged the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia to dismiss the matter filed by Chief Chris Akomas and the Progressive People Party (PPA) Counsel to the governor Wole Olanikepun (SAN), who made this known while objecting to the hearing of the application for leave of court to issue Pre-hearing notice to the petitioner, said that it was brought out of time. Olanikepun submitted that the proper time to take out the pre-hearing notice was on June 24 when the respondent filed and served their reply to the process and not on July 8. He said that the application was incompetent and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to extend time by virtue of Paragraph 18(1) of the first schedule of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. The senior advocate said that the provision of the law was trite, adding that Paragraph 18(4) stipulated that the proper thing for the tribunal was to dismiss the application and declare the petition as “an abandoned petition”. Counsel to INEC Adegboega Awomolo (SAN), and Mr Chibuike Nwokeukwu, who appeared for PDP aligned themselves with the submission of Olanikepun. Responding to the application, Mr U. Nwoko, applied for a short adjournment at least for 24 hours to enable him to look at the issue of law and case law cited by the respondents and reply accordingly. The application was not objected to by the respondents’ counsel and the tribunal Chairman, Hon. Justice Mobolaji Ojo, held that the application was not frivolous and adjourned the case to July 15 for continuation. Also the tribunal has fixed July 27 as the hearing date of the preliminary objection brought by Orji in the petition filed by Chief Emenike Owanta of Democratic Front for Peoples Federation (DFPF). Hon. Ojo ordered the respondents, who gave notice of their intention to bring the objection to file it on July 19 and that the petitioners should reply to it on July 22. The tribunal had earlier heard and granted the application of the petitioner for leave to apply for pre-hearing notices. Our correspondent reports that the governor is challenging the competence and jurisdiction of the tribunal to entertain Owanta’s petition. Owanta had dragged the governor, PDP and INEC to the tribunal over unlawful exclusion of the party to contest the April 26 governorship election in the state.