By Ayodele Oni
The Election Petition Tribunal hearing complaints arising from the governorship election in Bayelsa state has adjourned indefinitely.
The decision followed a petition against members of the tribunal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in last election Timipre Sylva.
The APC and its governorship candidate in the November last year gubernatorial election, Timipre Sylva on Monday in Abuja passed a vote of no confidence on the Election Petition Tribunal.
They accused the Tribunal headed by Justice Adekunle Adeleye of undue biass against them in the conduct of proceedings, findings and decisions and demanded its outright disbandment and reconstitution.
In a petition to the President of the Court of Appeal, APC and Sylva accused the Tribunal of denying them their Constitutional right to fair hearing as required by law.
According to them, they had lined up 234 witnesses to establish their petition against the declaration of Senator Douye Diri as winner of the poll
In the petition dated March 4, 2024, they alleged that the Tribunal turned the table against them with an order that the 234 witnesses must be called within 7 days only.
The petition signed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN, Sylvester Emenike Elema said that APC and Sylva agreed to call 25 witnesses daily and lamented that the Tribunal allowed them to call only 8 witnesses per day.
APC and Sylva complained that they had no option than to hurriedly close their case on February 27 after calling only 49 out of their 234 witnesses.
Besides, the petitioners alleged that in the records of proceedings they obtained, the Tribunal made several comments and observations in writing which pointed to the facts that it had made up its mind to go the way of the respondents.
The Tribunal was accused of coming to the wrong conclusions in its findings that “the pattern of writing witness statements on oath employed by the petitioners was same and done by same person”.
When hearing was to resume on Monday, the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Adekunle Adeleye informed lawyers to various parties of a petition questioning the members neutrality and integrity and seeking indefinite adjournment in the hearing of the case.
Justice Adeleye said that he did not know where the Tribunal members have gone wrong as alleged by APC and Sylva and called for reactions.
Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Charles Edosomwan SAN said that both APC and Sylva were not fair to the Tribunal in their allegations of bias and distortion of facts.
In the same vein, similar views were expressed by Chris Uche SAN who stood for Governor Douye Diri, Chukwuma Machukwu Ume SAN counsel to Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrujakpo and Tayo Oyetibo SAN who represented People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
After brief reactions, they agreed that the adjournment be granted as requested by APC and Sylva.
In a short ruling, Justice Adekunle Adeleye adjourned the matter indefinitely, to await the decision of the Court of Appeal President on the allegations of bias and denial of fair hearing as raised by the two petitioners.
