Bauchi elections tribunal receives 26 petitions

The Governorship/National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Bauchi State says it has received 26 petitions. The Secretary of the ...

The Governorship/National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Bauchi State says it has received 26 petitions.

The Secretary of the Tribunal, Bello Abdullahi, disclosed this while speaking to newsmen in an interview on Tuesday.

He explained that 15 of the petitions are for the National Assembly elections.

“We have so far received 26 petitions, seven of them are for the Senate.

“The seven petitions are from all the senatorial districts, with some having multiples.

“For the House of Representatives, we have so far received only eight petitions, meaning that not all the Reps submitted their petitions,” he said.

Abdullahi said that the tribunal has not received any petition for the governorship election in the state, pointing out that “they still have time to file their petitions, except if they don’t want to challenge the election.”

Continuing, he said, “Most of them wait till the last day, last hour and last minute before they file their petitions and you can’t refuse them because it is their right and it is within the stipulated time.”

On whether the tribunal has started sitting, the Secretary said that it has started partial sitting.

He said: “The tribunal has started sitting partially on motion ex parte only. As soon as that is over between now and Friday, the next thing we’ll wait for is filling of memoranda and replies.

“When this is over, we’ll issue out a pre-hearing session notice, together with the inaugural session. As soon as that is done, we will start the pre-hearing session.”