By Joseph Erunke

CANDIDATE of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the recently conducted Imo North Senatorial re-run election, Senator Athan Achonu,has demanded explanation for the disbandment of the election petition tribunal set up to that effect by the President, Court of Appeal.

Sen. Athan Achonu

Achonu said the disbandment was at the instance of his opponent, Benjamin Uwajumogu, of the All Progressives Congress, APC,who was declared winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, following his objection to one of the tribunal members.

He insisted that as a petitioner in the case, he was entitled to know the circumstances that led to the disbandment, given that at the time of the action, the said judge had already excused himself out of the tribunal.

Senator Achonu, told Vanguard after addressing the media, in Abuja, on Monday, that the disbandment of the tribunal was a grand plan to deny him justice in the case before the tribunal.

Achonu’s election in 2015 was nullified by the Owerri Division of the Court of Appeal, following a petition by the candidate of the Accord Party, AP, that the logo of the party was excluded in the election.

The senator, who claimed that he won the election he was challenging its outcome,  urged the President of Court of Appeal to explain the reason for the disbandment of the tribunal.

The senator, who was sworn in along with others in the 8th Senate, spent barely six months representing his Imo North constituents before the annulment of his election by the court.

Vanguard gathered that the winner of the re-run poll and candidate of the APC, who is the first respondent in the case at the tribunal, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, had raised an objection to the inclusion of Justice Saka Oyejide Falola as a member of the electoral panel, a development that resulted in the disbandment of the tribunal.

But Senator Athan Achonu, who is challenging the declaration of the APC candidate as the winner by the INEC, described the move as a deliberate ploy by the APC and its candidate to truncate the hearing of the case.

Achonu insisted that the development was part of the tactics employed by the APC to ensure that his petition was not determined on time. He said his team of lawyers had already delivered a petition against the development to the President of Court of Appeal, seeking explanation and urgent setting up of another panel to hear his case over what he called injustice done to him.

Hear him: “What happened was that the candidate of the APC, Benjamin Uwajumogu opposed the membership of one of the Judges and the man excused himself, he was no more attending sittings. So, on Monday, when the motion came up for hearing, they adjourned to Tuesday but when my lawyers went to court on Tuesday, they were surprised by the statement of the Secretary to the tribunal to the effect that the tribunal had been disbanded without our prior knowledge.

“And before then, I had told my lawyers that APC people were boasting. Even my supporters were telling me how they were boasting everywhere that the tribunal was going to be disbanded and delay the case until I won’t be able to present my petition.”

“Now, Buhari and the Chief Justice of the Federation   want to clean up the judiciary, so we are entitled to know the reason for the disbandment of the election tribunal hearing my case…
“So, I’m bringing it to the notice of the whole world that there’s a grand plan to deny me justice.”
“The plan is that they would keep delaying such that at the time that they will now constitute the tribunal, I would not be able to bring my witnesses to prove my case.
“I have signed election results certified by INEC showing that I won. So, that is why they don’t want to come to court because where will they tell the world that the results that they used to announce a winner came from?”