Court orders fresh panel for ACN candidate’s appeal

BY PETER DURU
MAKURDI—The Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi, weekend, rejected the ruling of the Benue State Legislative Houses’ Election Petitions Tribunal which upheld the election of Mr. Hassan Saleh of PDP, representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, directing that a new  panel be set up to hear the case afresh on its merit.

The election of Saleh was challenged by Mr.  Daniel Onjeh of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, on the grounds that the lawmaker was not duly nominated by his party and, therefore, not sponsored by PDP for the election.

Onjeh had also questioned the propriety of the substitution of the name of another  PDP candidate in the election few minutes to the polls with that of Saleh, arguing that the lawmaker was not a candidate at the election as he was not qualified to contest or benefit therefrom.

Ruling on the matter, the Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, dismissed the judgment of the tribunal delivered on September 6, 2011, quering the rationale for dismissing the petition by the ACN candidate for want of jurisdiction.

Justice Onyemenam held that after a full overview of the issues raised by the parties and the judgement of the tribunal, the court was left with no other option than to set aside the judgement.

She then remitted the matter back to the tribunal for it to be heard on its merit.

“This matter should be heard on its merit, it is therefore reverted back to the tribunal for retrial by a panel to be constituted for that purpose”, she said.

Reacting to the judgement, the ACN candidate and former West African Students’ Association President, Comrade Onjeh expressed confidence that the judiciary would revert the injustice he suffered at the last election.

However, Counsel to the PDP candidate, Mathias Emeribe said “there is a fundamental flaw with the judgement”.