LP’s appeal: Tinubu knows fate today

LAGOS—Senator Oluremi Tinubu of
Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, will
today know her fate in the appeal by
Labour Party, LP, and its candidate, Mr.
Oladapo Durosinmi-Etti, against the
judgment of the election Tribunal, Lagos,
which upheld her declaration by
Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, as winner of the April
9 Lagos Central senatorial election.
The Appeal Court, had last, fixed today
for judgment, after listening to
submissions by appellants and the
respondents.
LP and Durosinmi-Etti, seeking the
nullification of Mrs. Remi Tinubu’s
election to the Senate, are sking the
Court of Appeal to order a fresh election.
According to LP and Durosinmi-Etti, Mrs.
Tinubu’s victory at election should to be
upturned on the grounds of non-
appearance of their party logo on the
ballot papers used for the election.
Counsel to Labour Party, Chief
Chukwuma Ekomaru, SAN, at the hearing
of the appeal, told the court that his
client’s petition was dismissed solely
because his pre-hearing notice was
issued through a letter to the Tribunal’s
Secretary, and argued that the pre-
hearing notice need not come in the
form of a motion.
Ekomaru argued that such dismissal
contravened recent decisions of the
Court of Appeal, citing the case of Aliyu
Ibrahim Gebi v Alhaji Garba Dahiru and
others, where recently (August 22,
2011) an Appeal Court decisions in Jos,
admitted that the issuance of pre-
hearing notice could be done by either a
letter, by motion on notice or a motion
ex-parte.
Senator Tinubu’s counsel, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo, SAN, in his submission
countered appellant counsel’s position
on the pre-hearing notice with the
Sokoto Appeal Court, which held that
pre-hearing notice should be by a
motion to the tribunal and not through a
letter.
He urged the court to dismiss the appeal,
saying “there is no relief before the
court seeking nullification of the
election.”