Election tribunal begins sitting in Ekiti •As APC withdraws ex parte motion

ELECTION Petition Tribunal to hear cases emanating from conduct of the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State began sitting in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday. Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Mohammad Siraj, of the Federal High Court, Jos Division, appeared alone at the inaugural sitting and struck out a motion ex parte filed by the petitioner, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it inspect materials used for the conduct of the election based on request of the petitioner. Alhaji Lateef Fagbemi, who will lead the APC’s legal team in the matter was represented at the inaugural sitting by Mr Kabir Akingbolu. The first and second respondents, Mr Ayodele Fayose and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not make any legal representation at the tribunal, as they are precluded from announcing appearances in arguments that rested on motion ex-parte. According to the APC’s counsel, the petitioner’s decision to withdraw the motion was because events had overtaken the demand and 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, in a petition deposed to by its interim chairman in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, called for the invalidation of the election on three grounds. The grounds were that Mr Ayodele Fayose was not fit to contest the election on ground of his alleged impeachment in 2006 as the governor of the state. The APC is also contesting what it claimed was “undue militarisation of the election by the Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah and the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar” and also claimed 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.