The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna has adjourned the case between former Kaduna State governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, and the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the April senatorial election in the state, Hon. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, till August 16, 2011.
The adjournment, according to the tribunal, is to allow time for the respondents (Datti Baba-Ahmed, CPC and INEC) to file their response to the pre-trial application filed by Makarfi’s counsel and for the pre-trial hearing to come up.
Counsel to Makarfi had earlier filed an application asking the court not to allow for an extension of time for Datti to file a response to the petition outside the stipulated time limit.
A member of the tribunal, Justice Olusola Williams, ruling on the application brought by Datti’s counsel, Abbas Ibrahim, said that even though the reasons given by the respondent for not filing their reply on time were not cogent enough, the tribunal would accept his request.
The tribunal, however, dismissed a second application by Datti Ahmed’s counsel urging it to set aside the service of the substantive petition on his client out of jurisdiction, by pasting it on the wall of his Abuja residence, ruling that the application lacked merit.
Justice Williams said that even though the respondents failed to file their reply to the petition on time and no cogent reason was given for their action other than communication breakdown between the Kaduna and the Abuja headquarters of the CPC, there was the need to hear the substantive petition based on its merit.
She, however, granted the application of the respondent in the case and granted the prayer for an extension of time to file a reply. The tribunal also granted a similar application by the third respondent (INEC) and ordered that the response filed on July 13 by the commission be deemed to have been properly filed and served.
Ruling on the second application seeking to nullify the service of the petition ‘outside jurisdiction’, chairman of the tribunal, Justice Daniel Kailo, said that going by the provisions of the 2010 Electoral Act, there was a single election tribunal even though it was set up in each state of the federation.
He agreed with counsel to Makarfi that out of jurisdiction would therefore mean service outside the Federal Republic of Nigeria, pointing out that the Sheriff and Civil Procedures Act of 2004 can therefore not be applicable in the case.
He noted that by its own nature, election petitions are unique and are assigned a specific number of days within which it should be dispensed off, adding that it will be odd to anticipate that the 30 days provided for in the Sheriff and Civil Procedures Act should be applicable when the Electoral Acts gives the tribunal 180 days to dispose of the petition.
He noted that it was never the intention of the lawmakers who passed the Electoral Acts to make the Sheriff and Civil Procedures Acts part of the laws in an electoral matter, adding that by their own admission, the respondents have already taken steps to respond to the petition and therefore cannot turn round to object to the mode of service.
On the service of the petition on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) through its Kaduna office instead of its Abuja headquarters, the tribunal ruled that the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2004 relied upon by the respondents does not apply in the matter at hand as the CPC was not a company in the eye of CAMA.
Justice Kailo ruled that it was wrong to say that the second respondent was served through its Kaduna office, the service was not proper and should be set aside, adding that the Electoral Acts 2010 allow for such service and therefore dismissed the application for lack of merit.
It was witnessed however that the court room was filled to capacity with supporters of both parties unlike what was experienced in previous hearing.