Rerun: Appeal Court reserves judgment on David Mark, Onjeh

THE Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi, Benue State capital, on Wednesday, reserved judgment between Honourable Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress  (APC) and former senate president, Senator David Mark of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 20 rerun.

The  APC senatorial candidate had challenged the June 30, 2016 ruling of the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal, which dismissed his petition on the ground that it was filed out of time.

The counsel to APC senatorial candidate, Mr Adetunji Oso, while adopting his written address, urged  the Appeal Court to  upturn the judgment of the lower court  and remit the petition back to the tribunal for continuation of the proceedings.

In his own submission,  counsel to  David Mark, Mr Ken Ikonne, after adopting his brief, urged the Appeal Court to “be bound and extremely persuaded by the Supreme Court judgment in the case between Okechukwu vs the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and dismiss the appeal for lack of merit.

Ikonne, in his argument, maintained that Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution, was clear that the day of declaration of an election result should be included in the days allowed for the filing of a petition before a court.

In his own submission, the PDP counsel, Mr Chris Alechenu, described the appeal by the appellant as an academic exercise and urged the court to dismiss it on the premise  that the appellant’s failure to file replies to the responses filed by the second respondent.