The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has fixed June 25 to entertain a motion filed by the interim National Chairman of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Tapre Poland seeking to withdraw petition against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tapre, a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party assumed the position after the substantive National Chairman, after the former chairman, Chief Ambrose Owuru was suspended by the party.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Tapre also filed an application seeking to substitute the Counsel representing the party in the case.
Justice Mohammed Garba, Chairman of the five-man panel of justices adjourned hearing on the motion after Mr Oliver Eya, Counsel for both HDP and Owuru requested for time to file his clients’ responses to the two applications.
Eya, had expressed dismay over the motions which he described as an “ambush’’, as according to him, he has yet to be briefed by his clients.
NAN recalls that a Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, earlier ordered Owuru to stop parading himself as the national chairman of the party.
The order which was given by Magistrate Mabel Segun-Bello, followed a motion MN/07/19, in the suit marked CV/02/2019, filed in the court by HDP.
The motion was said to be brought pursuant to order 16, Rule 6, of the District Court Rules as applicable to FCT; and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court.
According to the court, “the defendant/respondent is hereby restrained from further parading himself as the National Chairman of the plaintiff (party) pending his clearance by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
NAN also reports that Owuru was declared wanted by the EFCC in the Nation Newspaper of Tuesday, July 10, 2018.
The HDP chieftain was declared wanted by the anti-graft agency following a report to the commission that the defendant allegedly sold a piece of land in Port Harcourt to two different persons.
The allegation had prompted the party to convene an emergency meeting, which held between July 30 and July 31, 2018, resulting in his suspension and appointment of Tapre as interim national chairman of the party.
Poland became the substantive national chairman during the party’s national convention, which held on Oct. 6, 2018.
However, Owuru, the acclaimed presidential candidate of the party in the Feb.23 general election had claimed to have won the election through a nationwide “referendum’’.
Owuru, whose petition marked as CA/ PEPC/001/2019, also cited the All Progressives Congress, APC and the INEC as Respondents.
NAN recalls that Owuru secured a total of 1,663 in the presidential election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). (NAN)
