After spending over three weeks on how to find its bearing on the Professor Steven Ugba versus Governor Gabriel Suswam case which the Supreme Court said should be heard on its merit, the reconstituted governorship election petition tribunal is again faced with the problem of unraveling what made the tribunal secretary to release tendered documents that were marked exhibits to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
Counsel to Professor Ugba, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, had during the tribunal’s sitting last Monday, expressed regrets over the release of the exhibits to the ACN.
Akeredolu’s statement which came after the tribunal had decided that it would commence hearing from the former tribunal, generated controversy as counsels to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Governor Gabriel Suswam complained bitterly about the behavior of the tribunal secretary.
Messrs Jibrin Okutepa, Solo Akuma and Damian Dodo, all SAN, wondered how the ACN was able to retrieve the documents it tendered earlier as evidence and suggested that the action should be investigated by the tribunal.
As the controversy dragged, Akeredolu pleaded that the documents should be retendered in due course but Oktepa insisted that documents certified by INEC should not have been tampered with because it cannot certify new ones in view of the problems associated with such exercise.