Funso Muraina
8 January 2008
Abuja — The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application by Hope Democratic Party seeking an accelerated hearing of an appeal filed by the party against the judgment of the Presidential Election Tribunal dismissing the party's petition against President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua.
Justice Sylvester Onuh dismissed the application when he was told that neither the party nor its presidential candidate Chief Ambrose Oworu was in court.
The court was shocked to discover that the party after filing an application to have its case heard quickly would refuse to come to court. All the respondents including President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and the Impendent National Electoral Commission were in court.
Chief Kanu Agabi SAN represented INEC while Mr. Bello Abu from the chambers of Alex Izinyon SAN appeared for Yar' Adua. Justice Onu did not give any date for hearing the substantive petition since the petitioner had not shown any seriousness at prosecuting his petition.Had the petitioner been in court, Justice Onu would have fixed a date for the hearing of the petition.
The court of appeal sitting as the Presidential Election Tribunal had on 20th August 2007 dismissed the petition by HDP challenging the emergence of Yar'Adua as president from the April 21st election.On that same day the tribunal dismissed another petition filed by the African Liberation Party (ALP).
The panel, presided over by Justice James Ogebe, was unanimous in its two decisions.It held that the two petitions were procedurally defective and did not comply with the extant provisions of the Electoral Act 2006.
Specifically, the tribunal held that the petition of HDP and its presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Oworu, failed because the petitioners did not attach a list of witnesses as statutorily requiredThe tribunal also said that the petitioners failed to plead the facts of their cases and that the relief sought in the petition were "academic and hypothetical".
The tribunal held that the petition of ALP and its presidential candidate, Emmanuel Okereke, was defective because the respondents were non-juristic persons (not known to law).The petitioners had made the following as respondents to the petition "Independent Electoral Commission, Nigerian Police Force and People Democratic Party. The panel held that the bodies recognized by law are Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigerian Police and Peoples Democratic Party.
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