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| Dakuku Peterside Exchanging Pleasantries With Nyesom Wike |
As the Rivers Election Tribunal begins pre-hearing today,there seems a lot of confusion following the Refusal of INEC to allow the APC inspect the materials used during the conduct of April 11th Governorship election in the state.The Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja had on June 11 granted the requests of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its gubernatorial candidate in the April 11, 2015 election, Peterside Dakuku, to inspect materials used for the election.Counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Olumide Olujimi, sought the leave of the court to order the inspection of electoral materials used for the governorship election in Rivers State.
In the motion ex parte which was dated June 3 and filed on June 8, Olujimi prayed the court for an order allowing the inspection of the electoral materials.The counsel also prayed the court to order the inspection of Card Readers and records of electoral materials used in all the polling units in the state.
In a short ruling, the tribunal granted the requests of the applicants.
It, however, asked the applicants to put the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the state governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike on notice on the other requests to conduct a forensic analysis on the computers, and computer servers used for the election.
But instead of obeying the Tribunal Order, A motion dated June 16, 2015 was filed on his behalf by his lawyer , Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), Wike asked the tribunal to set aside the ex parte order for the inspection of the electoral materials, particularly the voters register and the card reader machines.
He argued that allowing the petitioners to have access to the card reader machines and the voters register in a manner that would allow them to make copies and store their contents electronically could compromise the secrecy of the ballot.
He added that it could pose security concerns as the materials sought to be inspected by the petitioners contained “highly sensitive security information containing the biometric data of all registered voters in Nigeria.”
On July 9 2015, Rivers tribunal validated its earlier order on inspection of polling documents
InspectionThe Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Thursday July 9 held that its earlier order for the inspection of polling materials in April 11 Governorship election remained valid.
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Muazu Pindiga, restated the order in a ruling he delivered at the resumed hearing of a petition challenging the election of Governor Nyesom Wike (PDP).
Cousel to Wike, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN) had asked the tribunal to vacate its order on the ground that his client had a pending application challenging the territorial jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the petition in Abuja.Akin Olujinmi (SAN), who represented the petitioners, had opposed Ukala’s position contending it was a deliberate plan to frustrate the hearing of the petition.
Pindiga said the Tribunal was properly constituted to issue any order which must be obeyed by any party appearing before it.He said INEC, a party to the petition, which the order directly affected, neither complained nor asked the tribunal to vacate the order.
Pindiga adjourned further hearing in the petition to July 22(Today)
That order by the tribunal is yet to be obeyed,who knows what the Tribunal might rule Today?
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