By Abdulwahab Abdulah

The President of the Court of Appeal has been urged to immediately disband the Edo State National and State Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin over allegation of giving undue technicalities to judicial proceedings in place of substantial justice.

In different petitions addressed to the Appeal Court President by a lawyer and civil society groups, copies of which were made available to Saturday Vanguard, the petitioners cautioned that if allowed to proceed further, the tribunal will sacrifice justice on the altar of technicalities.

The tribunal is presided over by Justices  A. R. Ozoemena, S. A. Adeoye and E. O. Abua.

In the petition by a lawyer, Mr. S. O. Oyatomi, on behalf of the National Justice Forum and Transparency Initiative (NJFTI), it was alleged that the tribunal had struck out two petitions without recourse to the substantive issues raised by the petitioners on the ground that it was the lawyer that signed the petition rather than the petitioners.

The lawyer accused the tribunal of closing its eyes to the Court of Appeal authority on the interpretation of Paragraph 4(3)(b) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act 2010, “thereby  setting  bad  precedent  all  over  the country with the elevation of  technical justice as against substantial justice.”

Calling on the President of the Court of Appeal to step into the matter urgently and disband the panel, considering the injury it may caused the electorate, the petitioners submitted that “election tribunals are to ensure that substantial justice is accorded to all parties.”

The petition partly read: “Our client is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the sole aim of ensuring transparency in our judicial system, make it free of judicial recklessness and corruption amongst judges and judicial officers.

“Our client  informed  us  of the ruling delivered by the Election Tribunal  holding  in Benin on June 18th and 22nd, 2015 in the case of M. Oladele Bankole Balogun & anor vs Hon. Peter Ohiozojeh Akpatason and two others, and  the case of  Hon. Lawrence  Osabokhien Ogieva & another vs Hon. Aisoweren Patrick and 2 others respectively on the ground that all the petitioners did not sign the petition contrary to the decision of the Court  of Appeal on that point  in the case of  Ibrahim vs Sheriff (2004) 14 NWLR (PT 892) 43.”

Rather than acceding to the above decision, according to the lawyer, the panel stuck to the authority of Dino Melaye & anor vs Tajudeen and ors, (2011)LPELP-19744(CA) that has different facts.