A three-man panel of the National Assembly and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, presided by Justice A.L. Ogumoye, in Umuahia, has adjourned till 31st day of August, 2019 to continue hearing in a suit brought before it by the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA), for Abia South zone seat in the February 23rd 2019 National Assembly election against the declaration of the Minority leader of the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe as winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).
Abaribe, a fourth-term Senator, is currently representing Abia South senatorial district of Abia state in the upper legislative chamber.
The adjournment was unanimously taken following a sharp disagreement by Counsel to APGA and its Senatorial candidate(Nkwonta), Barrister Chris Nwachukwu, who had informed the court that there was a case filed by PDP and Abaribe,(Respondents), seeking for an enroll order from the appellate court.
He stressed that he(Nwachukwu) only saw the ruling by the appellate court today(Friday) on a colleague’s phone, pointing out that the proceeding may not continue.
The Petitioner’s counsel stated that the signature he saw on the purported enroll order from the Appeal Court was not the authentic signature, adding that from what he read from the document, there were things that were missing in the said document.
He cited to the hearing of the court where the Supreme Court had severally said that the record of a proceeding superseded an enroll order.
The lawyer disagreed with what the PDP did by rushing to get an enroll order from the appellate court.
Nwachukwu claimed that what he saw on the document was not what the Appeal Court delivered. He prayed the court to give him some time to enable him get the real judgment as delivered by the appellate court.
He asserted, “From what the Appeal court delivered on, if the granting of the preliminary objection will terminate the proceedings, then the petition should be dismissed.
“The preliminary objection was never heard by the Appeal Court, maintaining that he must verify the signature of the judge, as according to him, judges do make mistake sometimes.”
Counsel to PDP and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Dr. Liborous Oshoma told the tribunal that they(PDP) actually received a photocopy of an enroll order and immediately tendered it before the court.
He wondered why his learned colleague would be arguing on a signature which was duly signed by the presiding judge of Appeal Court and advised him to go ahead and get the document from them so as to authenticate the signature.
” We want to also verify if the appellate court can dismiss a petition based on a proceeding it never heard. What was on the enrolled order is different from what the court of Appeal pronounced,” he said.
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