Tribunal adjourns sitting on Abubakar’s petition against Mark

John Akpodovhan and Donald Dakum, Makurdi - 03.02.2008

The Benue State Election Tribunal on Saturday adjourned hearing on the Alhaji Usman Abubakar’s petition against Senator David Mark to Febuary 8th to give its ruling on the motion filed by Mark’s counsel whether to re-open the case or not.

The motion before the tribunal by Mark’s counsel was that the case had to be re-opened to ascertain if the exhibits tendered by the petitioner, and those of INEC, were not tampered with.

Abubakar’s counsel , Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), opposed the motion, but after listening to Damien Dodo (SAN) , the tribunal ruled it would give its verdict at the next sitting.

Chief Clerk, who spoke to newsmen after the adjournment, said that at this stage, anything could happen and they were ready for such, pointing out that they were not bothered that the machinery of justice grinds slowly.

‘The doctrine of fairplay is what you are seeing today. We are not bothered that the machinery of justice is grinding slowly’.

INEC counsel, Chief Amaechi Nwaiwu ,in his reaction, said his client appealed to the tribunal to look at the exhibits to discover if they had been tampered with, stating that the figures in the exhibits, when compared with what they had, were completely different.

It will be recalled that the two staff of the tribunal reported that INEC exhibits kept with the tribunal were tampered with. They swore to an affidavit and sent a petition to the Chief Justice of the Federation , copying the Chief Judge of Benue State.

Based on the development , both INEC and Senator David Mark applied for a motion that the case be re-opened on the grounds that the exhibits had been tampered with .