*APGA to appeal against judgment

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA-THE National and State Assemblies Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Awka, yesterday, dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Prof. Dora Akunyili, against the candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Dr Chris Ngige, who was declared winner in the April polls.

But counsel to Akunyili, Chief Obiora Obianwu, said he would appeal against the ruling.

The three-man tribunal, headed by Justice P. O. Onajike Kuejubola, struck out the petition following an application brought by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to continue the hearing of the petition because of  failure of the petitioners to file the statutory Form TF008 as required by the Electoral Act.

The said form contains questions which the petitioners were expected to answer to guide the tribunal during the pre-hearing session.

After hearing the submissions of counsels to all the parties, the tribunal held that in the absence of the Form TF008, all the pre-hearing sessions which they had conducted in the matter, had become null and void, adding that the matter would, therefore, not proceed further.

Reacting to the ruling of the tribunal yesterday, Akunyili said the petition was still at the pre-hearing stage contrary to the impression that the petition had been dismissed.

According to her, the petition is yet to be heard. She added that the overwhelming evidence of manipulation of results will not allow anybody to dismiss the case without exhaustively looking into all the matter.