The Governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital has adjourned ruling on Governor Samuel Ortom’s application for striking out certain paragraphs from the petition of the APC governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime.
Chairman of the panel, Justice Adebola Olusiyi stated this in his ruling delivered on Saturday, stating that ruling on the application would be delivered after the conclusion of the trial on the entire petition.
Counsel for Ortom, Sebastine Hon, SAN had raised a fresh motion on the earlier application that was struck out last week and refiled was argued and deferred for ruling at the conclusion of the hearing.
The fresh motion, which was dated 31st May, 2019 was filed on 1st June, 2019, is predicated on five grounds is supported by an eight-paragraph affidavit and also a supporting affidavit.
According to Hon, the application is targeted at two things: To strike out certain paragraphs of Jime’s reply to the second respondent’s reply to the petition and to strike out additional witness statement on oath in the petitioner’s reply to the second respondent’s reply to the petition.
Hon argued that in replying to the second respondent’s reply to the petition, the petitioner offends the law by introducing new pleadings.
According to Hon, introducing new issues by the petitioner amounts to gross abuse of the court process.
In his reply on points of law, Hon submitted that no paragraph of his reply contains prayers, objections or conclusions as posited by the learned counsel to Jime, Kehinde Kolawole Eleja SAN.
He submitted that his deposition contains raw facts which fit into the requirement of Section 285(5) of the Evidence Act.
Hon, who insisted that the witness statement and certain paragraphs of Jime’s reply to second respondent’s reply to the petition offend the law urged the Tribunal to strike them out.
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Both PDP and INEC did not oppose the application.
However, the lead counsel appearing for Jime, Eleja (SAN) opposed the application by filing a counter-affidavit, supported by a written address on 4th June, 2019, in praying the Honourable Tribunal to strike out paragraph 2(a-b) of the affidavit in support of Ortom’s motion.
He also prayed the Honourable Tribunal to strike out paragraph 4(I) and Paragraph 5 and 10 of the affidavit in support.
His contention was that the said paragraphs are in contravention of Section 115(2) of the Evidence Act.
Eleja argued that Section 115(2) clearly spelt out what an affidavit should contain, that is to say: It should not contain prayers, conclusions and objections.
He contended that Ortom took up the job of the panel when he went on to draw conclusions based on his findings. It was his contention that Jime’s reply to the second respondent’s reply to the petition was properly filed and urged the Tribunal to dismiss Ortom’s application.
Ruling on the application, Honourable Justice Olusiyi insisted that ruling on the application will be delivered after the conclusion of the trial in the entire petition.
The panel chairman, however, after the end of pre-hearing on Saturday, said that the substantive case of the APC governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime and Governor Samuel Ortom would commence on June 24.
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