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| Edward Pwajo SAN |
Plateau Guber Tribunal: Counsels Comment Panel,
speak on Progress and challenge.
By Joseph A. Adudu
July 05, 2019.
Progress
is being made at the Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal
Sitting at High Court7 West of Mines Jos with both prosecuting and Respondents counsels
commending the Justice Saleeman led panel for its industry and high degree of
commitment aimed at fasttracking proceedings.
Speaking to Journalists after
proceedings on Yesterday, Edward Pwajok (SAN), Pius Akubo (SAN) and GarbaS.
Pwul (SAN) counsels to the petitioners and respondents respectively all
cherished the commitment of the panel to seeing to it that the case was given accelerated
attention.
According to Pwajok, “we are happy
with the panel and we have made tremendous progress because even today, we are
able to tender 14 INEC documents in evidence and admitted at bar and we led our
10 witnesses in evidence. So we are very happy with the way the proceedings are
going and we hope that at the end of the day, justice would be done”.
In his comment, Akubo said he was
perfectly satisfied with the proceedings and also commended the tribunal. “By
Gods special grace, we are perfectly satisfied with the proceedings at the
tribunal. We want to commend the Honourable Tribunal. The learned Judges have
gone beyond the call of duty. They have been sitting since morning and it’s
after 5pm now and have taken 10 witnesses in one day. Taking into account the
number of parties involved, it’s a feat that deserves commendation and we
salute the industries of the judges who are committed very now and then in
seeing to it that this case is given accelerated attention”, he said.
In his words, Pwul said he appreciated
the efforts made by the panel to ensure speedy hearing adding that the
proceedings so far have been in accordance with the laid down procedures for
the hearing of election petition cases. The learned silk however said that the
biggest challenge of the tribunal has been interjection from the gallery.
“The greatest challenge so far has
been interjection from the gallery by people who are anxious, whodoesn’t know
what is going on interject and sometimes interfering with the witnesses in the
witness box. Apart from that, there is no challenge from the tribunal, no
challenge from the lawyers who are prosecuting this petition and no challenge
from the lawyers who are defending this petition” saidPwul.
However,
hearing in the petition was on Friday adjourned to Monday 8, 2019 in an
impromptu manner when Mike Ozekhome lead counsel to the petitioners raise a
motion for the adjournment as there were only two members out of the three that
constitute the panel. The learned silk cited Supreme Court decision in Osun
matter when the apex court decision went against Adeleke as it held that the
proceedings that formed the basis of the judgement at the lower tribunal were
entertained by only two out of the three members of the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
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