Election Tribunal Begins Hearing Of 31 Petitions In Bayelsa

The Bayelsa State Election Petitions Tribunal has commenced sitting and hearing of a total of 31 petions filed before it in Yanagoa, the State Capital.

The tribunal, which commenced sitting on Thursday, warned litigants and councels to desist from seeking unnecessary adjournments, filing frivolous applications and preliminary objections, saying they are time wasting.
Such tactics, it said, are aimed at perverting the course of Justice.

Chairperson of the Tribunal, Justice O. M. Fadeyi, who gave the admonition in her inaugural address to formally begin the tribunal proceedings, noted that since the tribunal was time bound, it needed the support and cooperation of all parties to administer justice.

”We solicit your support and cooperation in administering justice to all manner of people via petition filed before the tribunal. As it is described, elections petitions before the tribunal are time bound and by their nature peculiar from other proceedings.
“We undertake to abide by our oath of office and mandate in dispensing justice with the help of God almighty.

“We seize this opportunity to admonish counsels and litigants to desist from seeking unnecessary incessant adjournments and filing of frivolous applications and preliminary objections, which is time wasting, purely an academic exercise, an exercise in futility aimed at perverting the course of justice”, she noted.

In a chat with newsmen shortly after its inaugural sitting, Secretary of the tribunal, Abba Umaru Dahiru, said the tribunal received 31 petitions, out of which 22 were for the State House of Assembly elections and nine for the National Assembly elections.

Dahiru, however, noted that one of the petitions has been withdrawn lately.