By Ademola Ade
The Court of Appeal has rejected a request by counsel to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ekiti State, Ebenezer Akinbuli, to relocate the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to another venue over alleged security concerns.
The development came on Tuesday as the SDP counsel was absent from the proceedings, although another letter was served on the tribunal seeking an adjournment pending the time the Court of Appeal would address the application for relocation.
The tribunal had earlier adjourned proceedings from September 16 to September 23 to enable the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, consider the petitioners’ request for a change of venue following the alleged assault on the SDP counsel.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Chairman of the three-man tribunal, Justice Abubakar Kutigi, informed the court that the President of the Court of Appeal had declined to order the transfer of the sitting.
He added that the tribunal was properly constituted to continue hearing the petitions.
Counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kabir Akingbolu, and counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bunmi Ipinlaiye, however, said they were not aware of the order of the Court of Appeal, which was served through the secretary of the tribunal.
Justice Kutigi subsequently adjourned the case to September 24 for continuation of the hearing in order to clear all doubts.
Speaking with journalists after the proceedings, Akingbolu said the petitioners had renewed their demand for the relocation of the tribunal from Ado-Ekiti to another venue.
He stressed that the request for relocation was made in respect of the SDP petition and not the Action Alliance (AA) petition.
The APC counsel also said the petitioners were responsible for seeking the latest adjournment, adding that the request was contained in letters filed in respect of the two election petitions.
Akingbolu described the petition challenging Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s victory as unusual, arguing that the margin and voting pattern in the election made the case unprecedented in his view.
He said the governor won across the 16 local government areas and most of the 177 wards in the state, while questioning the basis of the challenge by petitioners whom he said recorded relatively low vote figures.
Akingbolu further alleged that the petitioners were resorting to different tactics to delay the proceedings, including seeking repeated adjournments, and urged them to focus on the substantive issues before the tribunal.
He said: “There is confusion, so we need to clarify it. The SDP filed a petition and the AA filed a petition. On the last adjourned day, September 16, a petition was written by counsel to the party, SDP, saying that there was no security and that the venue of the tribunal should be moved to Abuja or elsewhere.
“As it is today, they are secure. They are the ones that sought the adjournment. The court has now adjourned the matter to tomorrow for continuation at the instance of the petitioners because they wrote the petition and a letter of adjournment to that effect on both election petitions.
“It is an unprecedented petition. The success of the governor and the people is unprecedented. The 16 local governments, almost the entire 177 wards, were won by the governor.
“There was no challenge from the people that filed the petition. None of the political parties called up to 200 votes. It has never happened in Nigeria in a governorship election that somebody who has not scored thousands, or even hundreds, will come and file an election petition.
“For me, I don’t think it is proper. We are here because this is litigation. If somebody writes that kind of petition when there is no ground, I think it is an illegal step.”
