The Court of Appeal siting in Abuja has directed the National And State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lokoja to re-list the petition challenging the result of February 25 House of Representatives election in Ajaokuta federal constituency filed by the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aloysius Okino.
Okino, through his lawyers led by Reuben Egwuaba, had approached the appellate court over the wrongful dismissal of his petition by the tribunal.
In its ruling on Monday, Justice Ugochukwu Anthony Ogakwu directed the tribunal to re-list our petition for hearing because the tribunal erred for not taking into consideration the pre-trial report which gave the appellant 5 days for hearing and dismissed the petition.
The Court of Appeal ordered the tribunal to relist petition for hearing since the appellant time has not lapsed.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sanni Egidi Abdulraheem of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the February 25 House of Representatives election in Ajaokuta.
The returning officer, Prof. Gbenga Ibileye, declared that the candidate of the APC polled a total of 12,049 votes, to defeat his closest rival, Aloysius Okino of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), who pulled a total of 8,110 votes.
Others are Ziya Gwatana Gabriel of the Labour Party who scored 842, while Idrisu Lawal Muhammadu of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), who scored 4,303.
