By Sebastine Ebhuomhan
Monday, 27th January, 2025. Abuja. Petitioners and respondents of the 2024 Edo State governorship election petition could not resume to trade tackles at the Election Petition Tribunal on Monday, no thanks to the unprepared venue of the hostilities in the Federal Capital City, Abuja.
A visit to the new venue of the tribunal situated within the serene atmosphere of the Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad Guest Suites and Apartments of the National Judicial Institute’s Mohammed Bello Centre revealed that the tribunal could not hold on Monday as initially announced. Staff of the Suites and Apartments directed petitioners, respondents, counsels, lawyers, politicians and members of the general public to return on Tuesday. They disclosed that they were just putting the place in a proper shape to host the tribunal. They apologised for the inconvenience the ‘no show’ might have caused interested and expectant citizens.
NJI is a big, wide, sprawling and beautiful estate of office and residential blocks. For those who may be planning to travel from outside Abuja, it is a walkable stone’s throw from the Dantata Flyover (Bus Stop) on the Lugbe—Airport Expressway. It is adjacent to the expressway from its location on the Jabi—Karonmajigi Road that also leads to the corporate headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Although effort made to contact the petitioners for their feelings was not successful, it was gathered, however, that the management of NJI had duly informed the Election Petitions Tribunal’s Secretary, Mu’azu Ibrahim Bagudu, Esq., who promptly and duly communicated both petitioners and respondents to stay away.
Speaking on the telephone, Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Hon. Samson Osagie (PhD.) confirmed the shift. He said the governor and his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) were aware of the shift. He expressed optimism of their counsels to resume hostilities to prove the victory of the state governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, beyond all reasonable doubts as soon as the venue is ready.
Oblivious of the shift, reporters and correspondents of media organizations such as: the Independent Television and Radio (ITV/Radio) station, the Edo Broadcasting Service Television and Radio (EBSTV/Radio) station, and others, who were sent to the tribunal by their organisations, simply had to turn back at the empty venue after making related enquiry.
Speaking at the NJI, a proud Edo State citizen and a former House of Representatives aspirant, Mr. Louis Ebodaghe, said he cancelled all his activities for the day just to come and observe the sitting. He said he has been unable to follow the tribunal’s past sessions in Benin City because he could not make the long journeys to Edo State from Abuja, where he lives. That is why, he added, that he was very happy when the Election Petitions Tribunal announced the relocation of its sitting from Benin City, Edo State, to Abuja last weekend.
The Notice of Relocation signed by Mr. Bagudu and released on Friday afternoon moved the tribunal’s sitting from Benin to Abuja. It stated, “I am directed to notify all parties that the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City, Edo State, has been relocated to Abuja at (the) National Judicial Institute (NJI), Airport Road, Abuja, effective from Monday, 27th January, 2025. For further enquiry, contact the Secretary.”
Although the movement caught the petitioners, respondents, counsels, lawyers and observers unaware, it was totally not unexpected following several attempts by supporters of political parties to foment violence around the tribunal’s sittings in Benin City. In a particular daring and brazen attempt to undermine the rule of law, judicial independence and popular democracy, a masked, unidentified lone gunman wearing the campaign T-shirt and fez cap of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate and major petitioner, Dr. Akintunde Asuerinme Ighodalo, stormed the venue of the tribunal and sporadically fired live bullets ostensibly aimed at driving fears into the hearts of the judges in order to derail the progress of the petition.
As at when the tribunal adjourned and closed doors on Friday in Edo State, it was hearing the case marked: EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024 filed by Ighodalo and others against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Monday Okpebholo, and the APC, challenging the validity of the governorship election results that Okpebholo won on Saturday, 21st September, 2024, by scoring 291, 667 votes (about 51.1 percent) to defeat Ighodalo with 247, 655 votes (about 43.3 percent).
The tribunal adjourned on Friday after taking the testimonies of PW11 and PW12. The sitting will now continue in Abuja on Tuesday with the petitioners calling more witnesses for examination and respondents’ cross-examination, especially if the listed schedule of prosecution witnesses sees no further disruption as witnessed last week when some of the petitioners’ witnesses refused to show up to testify.
