The Plateau State Elections Appeals Petition Tribunal sitting at the Jos Division of the Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling of the lower Tribunal in the election of Senator J. T. Useni to represent Plateau South Senatorial District in the National Assembly.

The appellate tribunal in upholding the election of Useni, dismissed the application of Senator J. N. Shagaya seeking for an extension of time to appeal the judgement of the lower tribunal.

The five Justices of the Plateau State Appeal Tribunal all agreed in conference that the appeal did not meet Rule 7 Order 10 of the appeal tribunal’s direction order, thus the application did not give good reason why it was out of time, neither did it enunciate the reasons for such delay in filing the application.

Apart from the reasons above, the appeal tribunal ruled that it agreed with O. Olundare (SAN), Counsel to Useni, when he told the tribunal that the documents presented to it were not certified, hence there were no materials before the tribunal for consideration and ruled in that stead.

The tribunal further said certification and non-certification of documents make them either valid or invalid and certified documents must bear the name of the officer, the title of the officer, the signature of the officer, it must be dated and must have a seal.

The tribunal went further to say that after examining exhibits A and B of the applicant, and based on section 104 of the appeal tribunal direction order, the two documents were not truly certified.

The appellate tribunal went further to say that since is of essence in elections petitions and in the spirit of suite generis, the application was time bound; hence, no time can be extended to the applicant because the Supreme Court, in its ruling posit that no time should be extended. Thus, the tribunal disallowed the application of Sen. J.N. Shagaya for lack of merit and sufficient reasons for the extention of time.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Judges all agreed with the 1st Judge in the determination of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd reliefs of the applicant sought in dismissing the application and upholding the election of Useni as ruled by the lower tribunal.

In delivering judgement in the second matter brought by Simon Bako Lalong against the ruling of the lower tribunal which allowed Senator GNS Pwajok, Yilji Gomwalk and the Peoples Democratic Party to present forensic experts report and allowed Adeola Oyewole to testify before the tribunal, the appellate tribunal ruled that the lower tribunal aired in law when it allowed materials described as fake to be admitted.

The first judge in delivering his judgement said: “You are aware that the judgement is against the Governorship Petition Tribunal where the petitioners were allowed to call additional witness.
“After a pre-trial hearing, the petitioners could not inspect the materials on the date the tribunal allowed the petitioners.

“Robert Clark made an oral argument and it was ruled in his favour.
“They should have appealed the order to inspect materials.
“Relying on pre-election request, can the tribunal grant a stigmatized material a ruling?

“The issue was res judicata.
“The tribunal erred in law in granting the order.
“Secondly, they asked the tribunal that it was cumbersome to inspect materials in 17 LGAs.

“What was the purpose for the inspection of the materials?
“They had 21 days to maintain the petition.

“The order by the tribunal for parties to inspect the materials should have been cautious.”
The first Judge in his judgement went further to say: “Disputing in 7 LGAs but wanting 10 LGAs for inspection and analysis should give exceptional circumstances.

“It is the petitioners that found themselves in still waters.”
Thirdly, the Appeal Tribunal in its judgement talked on the materials tendered and asked: “Will you use fake materials?
“Of what purpose will it be?

“It is baseless, thus, there is no merit.”
He went further to say that the counsel at the pre-trial court said they will sign and present the documents form the bar, thus the tribunal has k-leg.
Fourthly, the first judge said in his judgement: “The report gave an indication that after the pre-hearing, one application should be brought but no application and no exhibit was brought before the tribunal.

“Before a court makes an order, you must see the relief sought, thus, the tribunal used the report of the petitioners to the detriments of the appellants.

“The tribunal had no jurisdiction to make such a ruling, thus we dismiss the applicants’ application and award N50,000.00 cost to the appellants.”

On ground four, the first judge in his judgement said: “The respondents’ challenge that ground four did not emanate from the tribunal, thus, if Robert Clarke has stigmatized your documents as fake, how can they obtain an order?”

The judge then dismissed ground four.
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th and 5th Judges all concurred to the 1st Judge’s judgement and held the appellants’ application to dismiss the forensic expert’s ruling by the lower tribunal.
In his remarks, Charles Obishai (SAN), lead counsel to Pwajok and Gomwalk, thanked the judges for their judgement and said he will consult with his clients, analyse the judgement and may appeal the judgement in the Supreme Court.

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Appeal Tribunal upholds Useni’s election, accepts Lalong’s appeal