Election Tribunal: Court rules in favour of Governor Sani Bello

Justice Adama Jauro of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, has delivered its judgment in an interlocutory appeal filed by the Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, who is the 1st respondent in the election petition filed by Umar Nasko and the PDP, challenging the refusal of the governorship election petition tribunal to rule on a motion he had filed and moved at the tribunal.

The court of appeal agreed with the position taken by the tribunal to delay its ruling on the motion and take same together with the final judgment.

The Ist respondent at the tribunal had filed a motion challenging the competence of the petition on the grounds that the case of the petitioners was incurably incompetent as the issues raised by the petitioners had been litigated upon at the federal high court and judgment entered in favour of the 1st Respondent, which judgment was affirmed by the court of appeal.

In moving the said motion, counsel for the 1st respondent had urged the tribunal to either dismiss the petition or strike out the offending paragraphs of the petition.

Counsel for the 1st respondent/Appellant, J. S. Okutepa, SAN, thanked the court for its judgment but believes that sooner or later the petitioners will meet their doomsday in court as the petition is bound to fail. “It is just a matter of time,” he said.