The Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunal in Umuahia, Abia State has struck out the petition filed by Chief Nyerere Ayim, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, challenging the election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
Delivering judgment in the petition on Tuesday, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Usman Bwala, struck out the petition “for negligence and lack of diligence” in the prosecution by the petitioners.
Bwala also said the petitioners failed to comply with the relevant sections of the Electoral Act in prosecuting their matter.
Messrs Adegboyega Awolomo, Henry Balogun and Livy Uzoukwu, who were counsels to Ikpeazu, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission respectively, had urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition because of the absence of the petitioners at the tribunal.
In their separate submissions, they said neither the petitioners nor their counsels were in the tribunal and could not write to explain reasons for their absence.
Uzoukwu, while citing some relevant portions of the Electoral Act, urged the tribunal to apply the mandatory provisions of the law.
He said the Act “mandated the tribunal to dismiss the petition because the petitioners failed to appear for the matter”.
In his submission, Balogun said the petitioners and their counsel were present at the last sitting of the tribunal and “were quite aware of today’s sitting but deliberately chose to be absent”.
They urged the tribunal to strike the matter out, saying that the petitioners had lost interest in the matter.
The chairman of the tribunal later struck out the petition, saying the petitioners failed to comply with relevant sections of the law to prosecute their petition.
NAN