Police Beef up Security as Tribunal Begins Sitting in Ekiti

By Toba Suleiman 

Security was beefed up in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital,  yesterday as the Election Petitions Tribunal set up to hear the case filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the election of Mr. Ayodele Fayose in the June 21 governorship election began sitting on the petition.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Uyanna, is said to have taken the proactive measure, probably to prevent the breakdown of law and order.

Armed policemen were stationed around  Ado-Ekiti High Court, where the sitting was conducted and  barricaded the dual carriage  way that links Fajuyi  Park with the Basiri side of the capital city.

The  chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Mohammad  Siraj, of the Federal High Court, Jos Division, was the only judge who appeared  at the inaugural sitting.

Meanwhile, Justice Siraj struck out the motion ex-parte filed by the APC, seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it inspect the  materials used for the conduct of the poll based on the request of the petitioners.

However, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Alhaji Lateef Fagbemi, is to lead the APC legal team, although Mr. Kabir Akingbolu held brief for him during yesterday’s proceeding.

The 1st and 2nd respondents, Mr. Ayodele Fayose and the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not make, any legal representation at the Tribunal because in law, they are precluded from  announcing their appearances in an argument that rested on  a motion ex-parte.

The APC counsel averred that what informed the petitioners’ action for the withdrawal of  the motion was the fact that event had overtaken the demand and that  the parties that were joined  in the application were different from the parties  in the substantive petition filed against the respondents.

The APC had on July 11, 2014,   in a petition deposed to by its Interim Chairman, Chief  Jide Awe, called for the invalidation of the election based on three grounds, which are: That Mr .Ayodele Fayose, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election and the winner of the exercise,  was not fit to contest the election on the ground of  his impeachment in 2006 as the governor of the state.

The APC is also contesting what it termed the undue militarisation of the election by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Kenneth Minimah and the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji  Mohammed Abubakar and  also submitted that the election was manipulated electronically.

The panel has 180 days to try the case in consonance with the provision of Section 134 of the Electoral Act,  commencing from the day it  was filed at the Tribunal.