…Says he will challenge ruling of the tribunal
The senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Lagos West in the February 25 general election, Segun Adewale, has said that he would challenge the ruling of the tribunal.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Adewale denied the reports in the media that he abandoned his petition at the tribunal. He said the court throw out his petition based on technicalities.
He said, “The report in the media said that I abandoned my petition at the tribunal, so, I have to correct the negative narrative that is going on. We never abandoned the petition because our petition is strong and we a reason why we should not give it up.
“We won the election and I was robbed and we have evidence to show that we won the election. Apart from that, the person representing APC is not qualified academically to run for office. So, there is no reason for me to give up. The narrative in the newspaper is wrong.
“The judgement of the tribunal came as a shock to us because we have all the necessary details that will give us victory at the court. But the judge just refused to look at what is on his table and decide to give judgement based on technicalities.
“And those technicalities the judge based his judgement upon is not even inconsonance with the law of our nation and we will challenge it. But the issue is that we didn’t abandon the petition and after all, I’m not the one sponsoring the petition. People are the ones paying and contributing their hard-earned money and so I can’t unilaterally on my own abandon the people’s petition.”
Adewale said he won the senatorial election because he defeated the APC candidate in her polling unit, ward and local government. He said it is unfair for the court to throw out his petition based on technicalities.
The lead counsel to Adewale, Edmund Biriomoni, insisted that his client never abandoned his petition and that the narrative out there is false. He said they will challenge the ruling of the court at the Appeal Court. He said his belief is that the Appeal Court will do justice to their petition.
Biriomoni said, “Whatever grievance we have with the ruling, we will also be taking it up at the appellate level. We believe strongly that issues canvassed before the trial tribunal were not taken into consideration. These are the issues that form our grounds for approaching the appellate court.
“The details of our appeal would not be made known to the press but for the appellate jurisdiction to look at what we have brought before the court. What we are pursuing is justice and we believe that the substantive matter which was dismissed should be heard and determined in its merit not be aborted by technicality.
“In this instance, our position is paragraph 18:1 of the Electoral Act which states that you have to appeal and there is a consequence for not filing within seven days or not filing at all. But there are no consequences for filing early and the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal have all said the same thing.
“But for a petitioner to have filed early, it should not affect the proceedings because it means that the petitioner is diligent to prosecute his petition. I strongly believe that the Court of Appeal would do justice to the matter. I strongly believe that we will go back to the tribunal for the tribunal to determine the matter based on its merit.”
