INEC urges tribunal to dismiss Onjeh's petition against Mark

The Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) has urged the Election Petition Tribu­nal sitting in Makurdi to dismiss the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gover­norship candidate, Dan­iel Onjeh, for failure to comply with the law.
Counsel to INEC, Johnson Usman, who made this declaration at the resumed sitting of the tribunal yesterday, maintained that the pe­tition which is statute-barred was filed above the stipulated 21 days as enunciated in Section 41 of the first schedule to the Electoral Act.

Usman, who also challenged the jurisdic­tion of the tribunal to entertain the suit, cited the case of Okechukwu Vs INEC where the Su­preme Court held that the day of filing an elec­tion petition starts from the day of declaration of result. He noted that the result of the re-run election was declared on February 21, 2016 while the petition was filed on March on 13, 2016
He further queried that the petition did not comply with paragraph 4 (1) a, b, c and d of the Electoral Act, averring that election petition must specify the interest parties, their rights, facts as well as grounds of the petition.
Counsel to Sen Da­vid Mark, Ken Ikonne, argued vehemently that in an election petition, principle of computation of time which jettisons the interpretation Act, reckons with day of hap­pening of the event and also applies to the time of presentation of the elec­tion petition.