Lead counsel to the deputy governor of Benue State, Samuel Ode, Mamman Mike Usuman (SAN) has described the relocation of the Benue State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal from Makurdi to Lafia in Nasarawa State as unconstitutional and an error in law.
Usman in an interview with journalists in Makurdi after the sitting of the tribunal, said except under special circumstances of insecurity and lack of infrastructure for the venue that the tribunal will be moved from the area of jurisdiction to another place.
He said, “The venue of the tribunal is determined by section 285 (2) of the constitution without and under no circumstance can one compromise this.”
According to him, “no one can change this except under special circumstances and the special circumstances will be of insecurity, lack of infrastructure for the venue, but these do not exist here and to our greatest surprise, the trial was moved to Lafia and I realise that this was wrong in law.
“So, I filed a motion supported by an affidavit and a written address saying that under section 285 sub section (2) and under paragraph 20 sub (2) of the schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, the location for the trial is only when the security of people and infrastructure for the venue.
“Even though the petitioner file a counter which was surprising for me because all the petitioners counsel were Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and my application was mention before the panel in Lafia, the COURT read the Law reasoned and immediately return the tribunal to its proper jurisdiction.
“So today, I withdrew my earlier application because this court being a different one made up of another set of judges, needed to recommence it de novo, that is the pre-hearing. And so, it was a proper circumstance and the tribunal judges agreed with me and there was no objection from any quarter.”
He also expressed optimism that there was substantial evidence to show that the case against his client should be dismissed.
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