The Chairman of the Niger State Gubernatorial Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice John Igboji, has disclosed that the Tribunal will rule on the admissibility of the documents sought to be tendered from the bar in the case of forgery brought against Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State tomorrow (Saturday).
However, a mild drama played out on the resumed hearing when counsel to Governor Bello (the first respondent), Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), who had hinted at the last sitting on Thursday that he would be bringing his client to testify before the tribunal, said he was no longer calling any witness.
Okutepa noted that having reviewed evidence presented by the petitioners and exhibits he tendered through PW1 during cross-examination, there was no need for him to call any witness.
He said: “The first respondent has waived the right to call our witness because there is nothing to call witness for and so we close our case.”
This prompted a joke from counsel to the petitioners, Mohammed Ndayako, who rose to his feet and said the first respondent’s counsel was afraid of calling his witness.
The joke however did not go down well with Okutepa who demanded an apology from Ndayako but he refused, insisting he was only joking like the two of them always do.
Elongating the drama, Ndayako said he attended Law School in 1990 when the SAN was still in university and could not have meant what he said, to which the SAN replied: “This is another insult on me my lords and I won’t take it.”
Angered by the “serious joke”, Okutepa then ordered Ndayako and other counsels sitting in the front row where he was seated to vacate their seats and go to the back.
He said: “It would have been a different thing if he said my client was afraid to come but to say that I am afraid to call my witness is something I won’t take.
“I take strong exception to that and since he does not want to apologize, my lords I am left with no option but to ask him to leave here before I can continue.”
Ndayako quickly went to sit behind when J.N. Kalamu, one of the elderly counsels on his team, and J.J. Usman, counsel to the All Progressives Congress (second respondent), intervened and apologised to the SAN on his behalf.
The quick intervention of the two counsels seemed to have calmed frayed nerves as Okutepa then got up and also apologized to the tribunal for the ugly incident, after which he asked Ndayako to return to his seat.
It was at this point Ndayako returned to his seat and apologised to Okutepa, saying he never intended the joke the way his senior colleague took it.
Igboji thereafter told counsels that jokes were no longer allowed and they should strictly stick to their business in court.
The court session soon continued as Usman sought to tender some documents in evidence, which was objected to by the petitioners’ counsel.
It should be recalled that Umar Nasko, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the March governorship election in the state, had dragged Bello, the APC candidate, and his deputy, Ahmed Ketso, before the tribunal for allegedly presenting forged academic and birth certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
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