Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal yesterday refused to grant an application filed by the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the March 18 election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, seeking the consolidation of his petition with that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Olajide Adediran (popularly known as Jandor).
The tribunal, presided over by Justice Arum Ashom, also dismissed another application filed by Rhodes-Vivour seeking leave to call additional witnesses on the ground that the stipulated time by law for petitioners to amend their petitions has elapsed.
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Justice Ashom, who read the rulings on behalf of the two other members of the tribunal, Justice Mikail Abdullahi and Justice Igho Braimoh, held that the application for consolidation failed because the parties in the two petitions were not the same.
He also held that the grounds and the reliefs sought by the petitioners are different.
The judge further held that the application seeking leave to call additional witnesses is lacking in merit because the names of the other witnesses were not contained in the list of original witnesses filed along with the petition.
The tribunal stated that the name of the additional witnesses ought to have been filed within 21 days in line with Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Justice Ashom further held that the petitioner did not bring an application for an extension of time within which to file the list of additional witnesses within the stipulated time, and he was therefore foreclosed.
Rhodes-Vivour had, through his lawyer, Olagbade Benson, urged the tribunal to consolidate the petitions because they emanated from the same election.
But the counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Norrison Quakers (SAN), argued that the petition sought to be consolidated should have been attached to Rhodes-Vivour’s petition as an exhibit.
INEC’s counsel also told the tribunal to dismiss the application because it is a tactical amendment to their petition, and the time within which to amend it has expired.
Also, Sanwo-Olu and Hamza’s lawyer, Olaonipekun, insisted that the petitioner is out of time and that he can’t validly seek to file additional witness statements in proof of their petition outside the time provided in paragraph 4(5) of the first schedule of the Rules guiding the tribunal.
Also, during Monday’s proceedings, the tribunal gave its pre-hearing report on the number of witnesses to be called by each party and the time allotted for the examination and cross-examination of each witness.
Justice Ashom has adjourned the commencement of the hearing of the petition to June 13.
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