SAN FRANCISCO, May 30, (THEWILL) – The Appeal Court sitting in Benin, Edo State has reserved judgment in an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the state governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his party, challenging the election petitions tribunal’s verdict which upheld the victory of the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate in the election, Godwin Obaseki.
The panel, which has Justices S. Tom Yakub, M.O. Bolaji-Yusuf, U.A. Ogakwu and Mohammed Mustapha as members, had earlier dismissed a Motion on Notice brought by Ize-Iyamu pursuant to Order 6 Rule 1, Court of Appeal Rules, 2016, and Section 36(1) of the Constitution for the correction/amendment of the trial court’s record of his evidence-in-chief.
The appellant prayed for a leave of court to rely and use the evidence of the first appellant as recorded by Justice Gilbert Ngele (Member 1) of the trial tribunal instead of that of the Tribunal’s chairman.
He also sought an order deeming the record of his evidence by Justice Ngele, made on January 30, as the correct record of his evidence-in-chief at the lower court. But this motion was unanimously struck out by the appellate court panel.
In the main, the five-man appeal panel headed by Justice M.B Dongban-Mensem had on Tuesday reserved judgment indefinitely after listening to the arguments of both sides in the matter.
Ize-Iyamu and the PDP had through their lawyer, Yusuf Ali SAN, filed an appeal against the judgment of the tribunal presided over by Justice Ahmed Badamasi, which gave judgment in favour of Obaseki, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the APC last month.
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