The lead Counsel of the legal team of reelected Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chris Uche SAN has described the petition filled before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Bauchi by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Amb Saddique Baba Abubakar as lacking in merits.
He therefore said that the Legal Team will urge the Tribunal to dismis the petition forthwith.
Chris Uche SAN made the assertion while speaking with Journalists shortly after the pre-hearing session of the Tribunal held on Monday in Bauchi at the High Court complex.
He said that the PDP will present all the relevant documents in order to demand for dismissal of the APC’s petition expressing confidence in winning the case at tribunal.
According to him, “We are happy that the pre-hearing session has started on this election matters and one beautiful thing about the election in Bauchi state is that this is the election that was well conducted.”
He added that, “This is an election that everything speaks for itself, so we are going to file a motion to urge the Tribunal to dismiss APC’s petition.”
Chris Uche also said that, “So we are coming back to the Tribunal on the 31st of May for continuation and conclusion of the pre-hearing and go into the main business of the matters.”
He said that the petitioners said that they will need 4 weeks but we took 10 days to defend our case.”
Meanwhile, Justice PT Kwahar of the Bauchi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has adjourned proceedings to Wednesday, 31st of May for continuation of the pre-hearing of the petition challenging the victory of Governor Bala Muhammad of the PDP.
Lead counsel to the petitioner, Air Martial Sadique Baba Abubakar retired, Professor J O Olatoke sought for 4 weeks for the legal team to present witnesses to prove their petition.
J O Olatoke stated this in Bauchi at the resumption of the proceedings before the Tribunal.
While the lead Counsel of the 2nd respondent, Governor Bala Muhammad, Chris Uche and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Alhassan Umar and that of PDP, Professor Sylvester Chike agreed on 10 days to present their witnesses.
Both parties also agreed that the re-examination of Ordinary witnesses would be given 5 minutes, while the star witness would be granted 15 minutes for questions by the respondents.
