The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, Edo State, on Tuesday 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 verdict of the state governorship election petitions tribunal which upheld the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Godwin Obaseki’s victory in the election.

The five-man appeal panel headed by Justice M.B Dongban-Mensem reserved judgment indefinitely after listening to the arguments of all the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) 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 the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obaseki and the APC last Month.

Earlier, the panel which has Justices S. Tom Yakub, M.O. Bolaji-Yusuf, U.A. Ogakwu and Mohammed Mustapha as members, unanimously 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 correctiom/amendment of the trial court’s record of his evidence-in-chief. He 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.

The appellant 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.

The Nation