From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo yesterday, adjourned hearing in a forgery case filed against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba State Senator Emmanuel Bwacha by Chief David Sabo Kente.
The presiding judge Justice Bala Usman said that after listening to presentations from all the parties involved, the case was adjourned for Tuesday when the Court will decide to either listen to the preliminary objections challenging the jurisdiction of the Court and competence of the plaintiff in filing the case.
Kente was alleging that the embattled candidate of the APC forged some of the documents submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)that qualified him to contest the Primaries of the party
Counsel to the Plaintiff ,John Yuwa, told correspondents that the instant suite bothers on the qualification of the defendant to have even participated in the primaries of the party in the first place.
Yuwa said that the hearing was stalled ,because the defendants questioned the jurisdiction of the Court and after listening to the arguments, the trial judge decided to adjourn to tomorrow.
Barrister D. G. Tukura, Counsel to the Third defendant, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, said that the case was wrongly filed in the first place, after the errors were corrected at the last adjourned date, only for the team to realize that the matter, even as is currently constituted is incompetent.
Consequently, the defence counsel raised application challenging the jurisdiction of the Court.
Reacting to the process, the counsel to the All Progressives Congress APC second defendant, Barrister Boniface Iorkumbur noted that the plaintiff did not even participate in the said Primaries and so has no local bases to have even filed the suite in the first place.
Iorkumbur said that the Plaintiff also failed to push front the evidence they have against the defendants to enable them prepare their defence, noting that the Courts is not a chasing ground where counsels will come for a game of hide and seek.
The trial judge, subsequently adjourned the matter for Today to decide if the preliminary objections should be heard first.
Our correspondent reports that apart from the case of certificate forgery, Kente is currently challenging the emergence of Senator Emmanuel Bwacha as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Taraba for the March general election and the case is billed for ruling on February 3rd at the Supreme Court Abuja