Justice Abbas Bawale, Chairman of the Governorship and National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Sokoto State, on Thursday warned counsels to discourage their clients from ”trying to seek judicial favours”.
NAN reports that Bawale gave the warning in the tribunal’s inaugural sitting in the petition filed by All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship candidate, Ahmad Aliyu, challenging the return of Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Justice Bawale said: ”The tribunal has specific rules.
“We shall do our best to discharge our responsibilities consciously in accordance with dictates of the oath we took as judges and tribunal members.
“We urge counsel to speak to their clients to refrain from trying to reach out. I want to warn you that this will not be of any use.
“We shall at all times, be just in the discharge of our assignment,” Bawale said.
He added, ”If a party is not satisfied with any step taken by the tribunal on his matter, his counsel knows what to do to ventilate his grievance.”
Bawale said that the tribunal would sit on week days only from 9am to 1: 30pm and would take a break for one hour to resume at 2:30pm.
He urged counsels to accord maximum support and cooperation to the tribunal members in the discharge of their responsibilities within the stipulated 180 days.
In their separate response, lead Counsel to Aliyu, Chief Alex Izion SAN, Mr Tanimu Inuwa SAN for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Sunday Ahmed SAN, for Tambuwal and Mr Olumuyiwa Akinboro SAN, for the PDP, assured the tribunal of their support.
They agreed to filed and exchange, settle all pre-hearing correspondence within week out of the 14 days pre-hearing period.
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