MRS OLUREMI TINUBU

Tribunal refuses to dismiss petition against Tinubu.

The Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal has refused to dismiss a petition against the election of Mrs Oluremi Tinubu as the senator representing Lagos Central District.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Maurice Emeji, rather fixed June 17 for a pre-trial conference in the petition filed by Dapo Etti, the Labour Party candidate.
Emeji held that the tribunal would not dismiss the petition because there was proof of service of the petitioner’s reply to Tinubu’s counter-affidavit, contrary to her claim.
The tribunal chairman said that the proof was in the tribunal’s file.
Etti filed the petition against the Independent National Electoral Commission and Tinubu, who won the election on April 9 on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria.
He is challenging alleged exclusion of his name and his party’s symbol on the ballot paper.
Tinubu’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun, urged the tribunal, at the resumed hearing, to dismiss the petition on the grounds that the petitioner failed to file a response to Tinubu’s counter-affidavit.
However, counsel to the petitioner, Babatunde Fashanu, informed the tribunal that he had filed the reply and served it on the respondents.
Fashanu also told the tribunal that he had filed three applications, and that he was ready to move the one which sought to re-align the petition.