Tunji Wusu
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for governor, Mohammed Ashiru Isa, have been accused by Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani of trying to drag the Election Petition Tribunal back to the pre-hearing stage when proceedings should be wrapping up.
A counter-affidavit to a motion by the defeated candidate and his party seeking to subpoena 13 voters who have always been available to the petitioners as willing witnesses has been filed by Sani, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a co-defendant in Isa’s legal challenge to his victory.
The three-person Tribunal is anticipated to hear the motion today (Monday).
Isa and PDP sought for an order “granting the petitioners/applicants leave to file and move this application outside of the Pre-hearing Session in this Petition” in their request that was presented to the Tribunal on July 19.
They also asked for “an order of this Tribunal granting the petitioners/applicants leave to file and use the Witness Statements on Oath of the following subpoenaed witnesses; Minkailu Lantana, Abubakar Aliyu, Habila Bulus, Felix Audu, Haruna Abubakar, Yusuf Harisu, Isihaku Adamu, Abbas Nuhu, Idris Suleiman, Shuaibu Musa, Isah Sani, Hauwa Hussaini and Ilaya Shamsu”.
They also asked for four additional directions, including that Gwazah Bonett, their main witness (PW1), be deemed to have properly submitted and served a witness statement under oath.
Sani’s legal team is requesting that the application be rejected. Chief Duro Adeyele, a Silk, is leading the team.
“There is no exceptional circumstance to warrant the hearing and determination of this (petitioners’) application outside the Pre-hearing Session,” it was claimed in the counter-affidavit.
In the affidavit, Ahmad Mohammed, the governor’s personal assistant, added that the learned senior advocate had properly briefed him on the fact that “all the witnesses proposed to be called by the petitioners in their motion are people that are ordinarily available and accessible to them, before they filed their petition.”
The petitioners’ application, according to him, “is an egregious attempt to side-step the plain provisions of the Law, which demands the petitioners to frontload the Witness Statements on Oath of their witnesses along with their petition,” he alleged.
“No Witness Statement on Oath that has already been adopted and the deponent discharged may be subject to retroactive leave.
“Other witnesses summoned under oath by the respondents were never included in the list of witnesses called under oath. The petitioners’/applicants’ proposed process is quite unusual in light of Nigerian law.
“The approval of this application will result in substantial harm to the second respondent, Governor Sani. The governor’s team stated that granting this application would go too far in terms of this Tribunal’s ruling regarding the objection made to PW1’s recorded testimony. The counter-affidavit’s date of filing was July 22.
