The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, declined to stop President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Architect Namadi Sambo, from presenting themselves for the purposes of being
sworn into their respective offices tomorrow, just as it equally struck-out the substantive petition filed before it by the Hope Democratic Party, HDP. HDP had gone before the court with a motion seeking to forestall the planned swearing-in ceremony, insisting that it was the only way the tribunal could effectively protect the ‘Res’ of all the pending petitions challenging the outcome of the April 16 presidential election that favoured the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The party via a petition it lodged before the tribunal on May 6, alleged that Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, failed to comply with either the Electoral Act 2010 or the 1999 Constitution as amended, in conducting the presidential poll on a day different from the originally slated April 9, adding that over 30 million votes that were garnered by its own presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Owuru, were illegally diverted to the PDP.
It pleaded with the court to, on the interim, issue an order of mandatory injunction directing INEC to suspend and withdraw the certificate of return already issued to the president and his deputy, pending when the merit in its request for a nullification of the poll, is determined.
Meanwhile, a mild drama played out yesterday when the motion seeking the stoppage of the scheduled presidential inauguration was called up for hearing.
Immediately one Mr. Eyare J Ogar, announced his appearance for the petitioner, HDP, expressing his readiness to properly join issues with the team of lawyers who were led by Dr Alex Izinyon, SAN, and Mr Damien Dodo, SAN, to enter an appearance for both the 1st and 2nd respondents, Jonathan and Sambo, another lawyer that identified himself as Mr Tochukwu Alozor, stood up to inform the court that the petition pending before it was a fraud.
Tochukwu told the bewildered court that his name and signature was illegally used by the petitioner in preparing the suit, stressing that he neither prepared, signed, no consented to the entire process.
According to him, “my lords, I need to draw the attention of this court to the fact that my name was used in preparing this suit. I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t sign it neither was my consent sought before it was filed in court”.
His assertions led to lawyers on the side of President Jonathan, to demand a thorough investigation of the alleged scam with a view to identifying and punishing the culprits.
Dr Izinyon contended that the implication of the revelation meant that there was no valid petition before the tribunal upon which the motion that sought to frustrate the swearing-in ceremony was anchored, just as he urged the court to not only strike out the petition in its entirety, but to go ahead and order relevant security agencies in the country to investigate the allegation by Mr Alozor.
Determined to get to the root of the matter, the 5-man panel of jurists headed by the president of the court of appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, stood down the matter for 30 minutes, a period within which the lawyer that ab-initio announced his appearance for the HDP, Ogar, quickly filed an application to withdraw the suit.
When the court reconvened, he informed the panel of his decision to withdraw the appearance of his chambers from the suit or in the alternative to withdraw the substantive petition.
“We are very sad about this development; we were briefed and assured by the petitioner that the counsel that signed the petition was in the chambers of A.A Owuru himself. This revelation is not only shocking to us, but it is quite embarrassing and highly regrettable.
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