Nigeria: Presidential Election Tribunal struck out petition to stop inauguration of the President and his Vice
By Chinyere Ogbonna -The Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the nation’s capital has struck out the petition filed by the Hope Democratic Party seeking to stop the inauguration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan scheduled for Sunday, the 29th of May.
The Tribunal also struck out the application filed by the party for an order of injunction restraining, Dr Jonathan and his deputy Namadi Sambo from presenting themselves on May 29th for swearing in as elected president and Vice President until the petition filed against their victory in the April polls has been determined.
Before the petition was however struck out, a mild drama ensued as Mr Tochukwu Alozor who purportedly filed the petition as a solicitor to Hope Democratic Party disowned the petition.
The legal practioner also denied signing the petition. He said that the signature on the petition was not his even though it was signed on top of his name.
Attempts by a new lawyer, Mr Edmund Ogar who said he had been briefed to take over the prosecution of the petition to discredit the claim by Mr. Tochukwu failed.
Counsel to the President, Dr. Alex Izinyon asked the court to dismiss the application for an injunction to stop the inauguration in view of the fact that no proper petition was before the court.
After a ten minutes break, the five Justices of the court led by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami struck out the petition on the ground that there was no petition before the court since the petitioner had disowned the petition.
