|
|
Nigeria: Tribunal Rejects EU Report On April Polls
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Leadership (Abuja)
24 November 2007
Posted to the web 26 November 2007
Ahmed Tukur
Abuja
Election petition tribunal sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State has rejected the admissibility of the European Union report as a document to be relied upon for information on electoral malpractice in the last April general election.
The tribunal chairman Justice Rita Pemu ruled that the report was not original as it was not duly signed and certified by EU as the property of the body.
Justice Pemu said that if the report emanated from the EU it should have been duly certified by the body to authenticate the report as their document, saying that the report of the EU before the tribunal was a photocopy document, not original.
Justice Pemu also said that the EU as a body ought to have an office to relate with people and issues concerning it and other matters.
The tribunal chairman contrary to ANPP's was at counsel view, Barrister James Ocholi said that the EU report was not public document, the chairman said that the EU report was a public document and need to have been certified before taking to court, due to the sensitivity of the matter before the tribunal, which he said needed evidence to rely upon for the bases of justice.
Counsel to ANPP, barrister James Ocholi had prayed the court to admit the report as it was a primary evidence.
Barrister Ocholi also argued that the issue of the report not having been signed should be a yardstick for non admittance, as argued by the respondent, saying that a primary document does not need certification.
In countering motion the PDP counsel Barrister Pius Akubo argued that the EU report having not been certified was a bunch of public opinion adding that EU ought to have been present in court to testify whether the report was truly its document.
He further argued that the document has known date of publication and, such would have been produced even on the day of its presentation at the tribunal.
The INEC counsel Barrister Hassan Liman on his part sought for the committal to prison of EU for their failure to appear before the tribunal after having been served with a subpoena dated 17/ 8 /07.
Meanwhile the tribunal chairman has accepted a motion brought before it by ANPP counsel, Barrister Ocholi, praying that a forensic finger prints expert be allowed to give analysis of the sample ballot papers used during the elections.
|
The expert, one retired police fingerprint expert from United Kingdom, Ronald Walter Cook was said to be a retired finger print expert from police force in UK after 30 years of service.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
