Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Zamfara State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, has fixed April 18, 2019, to commence pre-hearing conference for the petition filed against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its senators and House of Representatives members-elect.
The tribunal fixed the date after it ordered parties to exchange their briefs in the petition.
The pre-hearing conference was supposed to commence on Tuesday but was stalled due to some technicalities.
Alhaji Lawal Anka and Senator Sahabi Ya’u, had filed a petition before the tribunal challenging the elections of Governor Abdullaziz Yari, Senator Tijani Yahaya of the APC as senators-elect from Zamfara State.
Also, Alhaji Shehu Ahmed and Ahmad Muhammad Bukura approached the tribunal to challenge the Abdulmalik Zubairu and Muttakarimi as House of Representatives members-elects from the state.
About two days ago, the petitioners, through their counsel, Zakawano Garba, had brought a motion asking the tribunal to commence pre-hearing conference.
But the Justice Binta Amina-led tribunal rejected the request on the grounds that the motion was not ripe for hearing.
Counsel to the respondents in the matter, Mr. Mahmud Magaji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the tribunal not to grant the request of the petitioner on the grounds that it was not ripe for hearing.
He argued that the petitioner should have waited for the respondent to file their reply brief to the petition before asking the court to begin a pre-hearing conference of their petition.
According to him, the respondents were still within time to file their response before the pre-hearing conference can commence.
He argued that the petitioner failed to serve the right person a copy of their process for a proper acknowledgement before approaching the court to begin a pre-hearing conference.
The counsel to People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Zakawano Garba, told the tribunal that the motion for a pre-hearing conference was ripe, having been properly filed and served on all the respondents.