Ondo Governorship Polls: Court Fixes Date For Hearing August 22, 2013 2:29 pm There was palpable tension in Ondo state yesterday when news filtered into the state that the Supreme Court has fixed September 24, for the hearing of appeals on the last October 20, Governorship election petition. It was generally believed that the date announced by the Supreme Court fell outside the 60days provided for hearing and determination of the appeal by the constitution. According to the Political Parties involved “The Apex Court is expected to deliver its judgement within 60 days and since the Appellate Court has made its own ruling on July 1, the Supreme Court judgement should fall between August 28 or 29. Both Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates, Olowarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Chief Olusola Oke respectively are challenging the election results which declared Governor Olusegun Mimiko as the winner. An Akure based Lawyer, Morakinyo Ogele who spoke with DailyPost said, the date chosen by the Supreme Court fell outside what the constitution upholds. He clarified that, “Section 285 (7) makes it mandatory for the Supreme Court to hear the case within 60 days of the Judgment of Court of appeal. The Court of appeal gave its judgment on 1st of July, hence the Supreme Court has up to August 29 to give Judgment in the Appeal. “The Hearing date of 24 September released by the Supreme Court must have been an error in view of the constitutional provision”He said. Meanwhile, members of the opposition parties were frustrated as they alleged that there is a foul play over the date being fixed by the Apex on their appeals. The Youth leader of the defunct ACN, Mr. Enas Mohammed suspects that the presidency’s support for Mimiko could be responsible for the imminent constitutional crisis in the state. Already, the Tribunal and the Appeal Court had earlier ruled in favour of Mimiko. The lower court based its judgement on the ground that the evidences tendered by the opposition parties, which was on the illegal injection of names into the voter register were genuine, but seen as a pre-election matter. Though, the Appeal Court disagreed with the tribunal on its judgement that it is a pre-election issue, but still ruled in favour of Mimiko on the ground that the evidences were not substantial enough to nullify the October 20 election results.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:26:17 +0000
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