Enugu – The State and National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Enugu has dismissed an application by the People’s Democratic Party candidate, Sen. Gilbert Nnaji, to strike out a petition against him.
Nnaji’s counsel, Mr Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), had requested the tribunal to strike out some offending paragraphs in the petition which alleged the re-writing of election results and the molestation of the People’s Democratic Change (PDC) agents by security officials.
Other paragraphs the respondent wanted to be removed included the allegation of thuggery at the polling units, snatching of ballot boxes, electoral misconduct and other irregularities which he claimed lacked facts.
Ikwueto told the tribunal that the petitioner, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, failed to join the parties against whom he made criminal allegations in his petition and urged the tribunal to strike out the petition for want of evidence.
He maintained that the pleas of the petitioner must be exact and precise without giving room for speculation as the allegation could not be attributed to any specified polling units or centres.
The counsel also sought the leave of the tribunal to determine, if after striking the paragraphs, the petition could stand or not.
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The counsel to the petitioner, Mr Rickey Tarfa (SAN), argued that the law allowed him to bring more facts and evidence to support his plea.
In his ruling, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice M.O. Adewara said that the allegations by the petitioner were imprecise, nebulous and failed to comply with the mandatory requirement of the Electoral Act and therefore struck out the affected paragraphs.
Adewara held that the petitioner ought to have included the parties against whom the criminal allegation was made as required by the law.
The chairman ruled that the respondent ought to have sought for new facts from the petitioner rather than applying for the matter to be struck out.
He noted that the petition still remained reasonable as it contained new facts and therefore struck out the application.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani is challenging the declaration of Nnaji as the winner of the Enugu East senatorial seat in the March 28 election. (NAN)