The Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal held its
inaugural sitting in Abuja yesterday with a promise to be fair to all
the parties.
In his inaugural speech, the tribunal
chairman, Justice Muazu Abdulkadir Pindiga, appealed to parties and the
media to co-operate with the tribunal in the discharge of its duties,
without any hindrance.
Meanwhile, the All
Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the state, Dakuku
Peterside, had alleged that the state governor-elect, Nyesom Wike of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been evading service of court
process in the petition challenging his elections.
The tribunal
was also told that all attempts by the bailiff of the court to effect
service on Wike were futile, due to alleged non-cooperative attitude of
the people in the house of the governor-elect.
Peterside,
through his counsel, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) had approached the tribunal
challenging the election the election of the PDP candidate on grounds of
irregularities and massive rigging.
At the inaugural sitting
yesterday, Akeredolu moved a motion ex-parte praying the tribunal to
grant an order for substituted service on the defendant.
He
claimed that the court bailiff had on several occasions visited the
house of Wike to effect service but was on all the occasion turned back
at the gate upon discovery that he was a court bailiff.
In an
affidavit deposed to by the bailiff and tendered by the petitioner, the
tribunal was told that neither governor-elect nor his agent was ready to
receive any court process from anybody.
The SAN said in
fairness, he could not establish whether it was Wike that instructed his
agents not to accept service. He however urged the tribunal to allow
him paste the process on the wall in the interest of justice and to
avoid unnecessary delay of proceedings.
In a short ruling,
Justice Muazu Abdulkadir Pindiga granted the prayer of the petitioner
and ordered that substituted service be effected on the defendant either
by pasting the court process on his gate or at the office of the PDP
secretariat in Rivers State.
The panel said it would
communicate the parties in the petition as to the next adjourned date.
Earlier in his inaugural speech, the tribunal chairman had appealed to
parties and the media to co-operate with the tribunal in the discharge
of its duties, without any hindrance.
Justice Pindiga promised
that the tribunal would be just and fair to all parties in all the five
governorship petitions billed to be handled completely within 180 days.
Specifically, he assured that the three member tribunal will endeavour
to begin sitting by 9am daily and work between Monday and Saturday in
order to ensure that all the petitioners are disposed of.
In
a response, Akeredolu who spoke on behalf of the bar, thanked the
tribunal for the assurances and pleaded that, the members should work
assiduously so that none of the petition would lapse so as not to defeat
the essence of coming to the tribunal to seek justice.
Credit: Tobi Soniyi/ThisDay
No comments:
Post a Comment