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| Cross section of Counsels in Court on Friday |
Plateau Guber tribunal
concludes pre-hearing, sets to hear substantive matter.
By Joseph A. Adudu
June 14, 2019
The
Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the High Court 7,
West of Mines Jos has this Friday concluded pre-hearing on the only
Governorship Petition between Senator Jeremiah Timbut Useni of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong of the All Progressive
Congress (APC) and the incumbent Governor of Plateau State. Counsels involved
in the matter made good their promise when they jointly asked for long
adjournment about three weeks ago to today to enable them served and reply each other all the
necessary processes before pre hearing. Consequently, all applications were taken today. And in
line with section 285 subsection 14 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and paragraph 12(5) of the Electoral Act, rulings on
such applications that were argued, whether as regards to jurisdiction or
regards to the competence of the petition itself were reserved till final
judgement which is 180 days from the day the petition was filed.
The
tribunal was adjourned to tomorrow to bring out the pre-hearing report which
encompasses the schedule of order of the entire process. Counsels had jointly proposed
and the tribunal approved the scheduled and order of the tribunal as follows:
Days for the process are Mondays to Fridays
from 9:30am to 5pm with an hour break in-between with the exception of Friday
which would be 9:30am to 1pm to enable Muslim faithful observe their prayers.
It was also agreed that certain times be allocated to witnesses and 5 minutes was
agreed on for examination in chief for each witness and 10 minutes for
cross-examination while 2 minutes for re-examination if the need arises. It was
also agreed that even in terms of expert witnesses or other witnesses whose
statement have not been uploaded and were called upon to come and give evidence,
counsels would try as much as possible to quickly upload their witnesses’
statement so that they will also enjoy the same time allocated to witnesses.
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| Cross section of Journalists |
It
was further agreed that counsels should have proper brief of witnesses and
prepare them well so that when hearing proper commences, all witnesses, should
be taken within the 14 days period stipulated by law. 26
June, 2019 is the adjourned date for hearing of substantive matter.
Useni
contested the Governorship election during the March 2019 Governoship election
in Plateau state but loss to Lalong. Dissatisfied with the process, he
approached the tribunal and his petition was filed in April, 2019. 60 days is
already gone out of the 180 days which is the life span of the tribunal. The
tribunal is now left with 120 days to complete the petition including delivery
of judgement.
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