Appeal Court Orders Retrial Of Petition Against Oshiomhole

The Court of Appeal sitting in
Benin last Thursday ordered the re-constituted election petition tribunal to
start the petition filed by retired Maj.- Gen Charles Airhiavbere afresh.

Airhiavbere of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is challenging the education qualification of
Adams Oshiomhole to contest the July 14 governorship election in the state. He
joined the ACN, INEC, the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the INEC
Returning Officer, as co-respondents. On September 27, Justice Suleman Ambrusa,
struck out several paragraphs of the pleadings and held that it was a
pre-election issue, which only the regular court had jurisdiction.
Consequently, Airhiavbere appealed against the ruling. In a lead judgment,
Justice Helen Ogunwuniju, upheld Airhiavbere’s appeal, saying that there were
triable issues in the petition. The court held that the tribunal erred in law
to have disqualified itself from entertaining the reliefs that bordered on
Oshiomhole’s education qualification to contest the governorship election. She
held that even though the petitioner had the option of approaching either the
regular court or the tribunal, Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution vested in
the tribunal jurisdiction to entertain it.

The court further held that the Supreme Court had always
warned against dismissing election petitions on technical grounds without
allowing parties to ventilate their issues on merit. She further said that the
tribunal erred in striking out several paragraphs of the petitioner’s pleadings
on grounds that they were scanty. The court held that the appellant’s pleadings
were clear and direct and that the form as stated in the paragraphs been struck
out by the tribunal were the foundation of the appellant’s case. The appeal
court in its judgment, therefore, restored all the pleadings as contained in
the petitioner’s original petition. She further ordered that the Acting
President of the Court of Appeal should reconstitute a new tribunal to hear
Airhiavbere’s petition on its merit. Justice Tom Yakubu, who concurred with the
lead judgment, said that Oshiomhole’s integrity would be enhanced if the issue
of qualification was laid bare and trashed out at the tribunal. Meanwhile, the
court also in a unanimous judgment dismissed Oshiomhhole’s cross appeal against
Airhiavbere’s appeal, holding that it lacked merit. The court described the
cross appeal as a mere academic exercise in view of the earlier judgment
delivered in Airhiavbere’s appeal.

In his reaction, Airhiavbere’s counsel
Aguenede commended the court for the judgment, saying that it would strengthen
the pillars of democracy. The counsel to Oshiomhole and ACN, Mr Omoruyi Omonuwa
and Ken Mozia, said they would study the judgment before taking the next steps.