Rivers Polls Tribunal: Parties Await Landmark Ruling, Today

Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria, Most Revd Nicholas Okoh (2nd left), in handshake with the former Governor Edo State, Prof. Osareme Osunbor (right), at the Conference of Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers in Abuja, yesterday

The Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, today decides the fate of all the parties in the matter when the Presiding Chairman, Justice Mu’azu Pindiga rules on five separate applications filed by parties to the petition.
Pindiga had last Monday, adjourned the matter to today after hearing the five applications by the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its gubernatorial candidate in the April 11, 2015, elections, Dr Dakuku Peterside.
The Tide gathered that one of the petitions was filed by INEC, two by Wike while the two others were filed by the petitioners. The PDP did not file any application.
Arguing the application filed by INEC on June 30,  the commission’s counsel, Wale Balogun, asked the tribunal to dismiss the petitioners’ reply to the response of the commission to the main petition.
In the first application filed by the Rivers State governor on July 11, his counsel, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), sought an order for stay of execution of the tribunal’s earlier ruling granting leave to the petitioners to inspect documents used for the conduct of the April 11 polls, pending his appeal against the ruling.
In the second application dated August 1, Wike also sought another order striking out all the witness statements on oath filed by the petitioners for not disclosing the full names and identities of the deponents.
On their part, the APC and Dakuku, who are the petitioners, through their counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), filed the first  application on July 16, in which they asked the tribunal to direct that all notices of preliminary objection already filed or yet to be filed by the respondents, should be raised in their final written addresses after the hearing of the petition.
In their second application, filed on July 17, the petitioners want the tribunal to order INEC to move the electoral materials used for the conduct of the April 11 polls to Abuja to enable them to inspect the necessary documents.
At the hearing of the applications last Monday, all the three respondents – INEC, Wike and PDP – agreed with each other’s applications but opposed all applications filed by the petitioners.
However, the petitioner’s counsel, Olujinmi, also opposed all the applications filed by the respondents.
After listening to the arguments of all the counsels, Justice Pindiga adjourned till today to rule on all the applications by the parties.
Earlier, the tribunal had last Monday rejected another application by the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, asking for the dismissal of the petition filed by Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
Wike of the PDP and the INEC had filed separate  applications praying for the dismissal of the petition challenging Wike’s victory at the poll on the grounds that the petitioners failed to pay the N100 said to be prescribed as fee for the issuance of pre-hearing notice.
The Justice Mu’azu Pindiga-led tribunal’s two separate rulings dismissing the applications were part of the string of recent decisions  of the tribunal rejecting applications by the respondents to stop the hearing of the case.
Various interlocutory applications by the respondents had prevented the tribunal from proceeding to the hearing of the main petition three months after it was filed.
The tribunal, by law, has statutory 180 days period within which the petition must be heard and determined.
In separate rulings on the applications, the tribunal held that  application for issuance of pre-hearing notice was not part of documents for which a filing fee must be paid as prescribed in Paragraph 37(4) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act.
The tribunal also held that contrary to the applicants’ contention, the petitioners validly applied for the issuance of pre-hearing notice (Forms TF 007 and TF 008) within seven days of exchanging the necessary replies between the petitioners and the respondents as stipulated by law.
According to Pindiga, “There is no defect in the pre-hearing notice. The tribunal, therefore, holds that the application filed by the 1st respondent (INEC) is hereby discountenanced and accordingly dismissed”, just as it also adopted the same ruling on Wike’s application.
Through their respective lawyers, Wike and INEC had argued that the failure of the petitioners to pay the fee constituted an infringement on provisions of Paragraphs 18(1), (3) and 47 of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act as amended.
Wike’s lawyer, Mr. Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), had while arguing the application on August 15, urged the tribunal to be persuaded by a ruling delivered by the Imo State Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal in Owerri on July 22, 2015, which  dismissed a governorship petition based on the petitioner’s failure to pay the N100 fee.
Similarly, INEC’s lawyer, Chief  K. C. Njamanze (SAN), who also canvassed the same argument, argued that the payment of the fee was a condition precedent for the tribunal to assume jurisdiction on the petition.
But counsel for Peterside and the APC, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), had asked the tribunal to dismiss the respondents’ application for lack of merit.
Olujinmi insisted that since the application for the pre-hearing notice was by a letter to the secretary to the tribunal, his clients were not liable to pay for filing fee as such was not specifically provided for in any law.
He added that even if his clients were required to pay the fee, failure to do so could only amount to a mere irregularity, which the tribunal could direct them to pay at any time.
He urged the tribunal not to allow the justice of the petition to be defeated by mere technicality which the respondents’ applications were predicated on.