LATEST UPDATE:
Fresh Party exposes INEC over alleged false claimsLawyers of the Fresh Democratic Party (FDP), Dr. Fred Agbaje and Kola Dopamu, yesterday made available to the media, a new notice of appeal/affidavit dated July 17, filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), against the court verdict that voided the commission’s de-registration of the party.
The INEC had deposed in the affidavit: “The delay by the appellant/applicant in compiling and transmitting the records was occasioned by the fact that the appellant/applicant was engaged with numerous appeals emanating from pre and post-election cases.”
The Fresh lawyers said the new notice of appeal effectively debunked the false claims that INEC officials had allegedly been making all along, that they had appealed the verdict, which was why the party had not been re-certified as required by law.
Recall that Fresh got a court verdict against its de-registration by INEC at a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole on July 29, 2013. But the commission failed to obey the court order to re-certify the party on the ground that it had already appealed the verdict.
According to Dopamu, “With the latest expose, viz the newly filed notice of appeal, Fresh was correct, when we alleged that no appeal was filed by INEC; a notice of appeal it initially entered was abandoned long time ago, only for the agency to re-file it and plead for a waiver by the Court of Appeal rule that bans any appeal after 90 days of a delivered judgment from a lower court.”
Dopamu said Fresh, a party founded by Revd. Chris Okotie, would respond to INEC’s latest legal somersault when a hearing date was given for the commission’s affidavit. He, however, added whimsically, “we hope Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman, and his people will have the courage to pursue the notice this time, as the presidential election is drawing nearer.”
The lawyer asserted that Okotie would contest the 2015 presidential election, as the pastor-politician previously declared.
The lead counsel to Fresh, Dr. Agbaje, said Jega would have to answer for contempt of court for alleged willful disobedience of a verdict by a court of competent jurisdiction when the case eventually comes up in court.
In a related development, Okotie reacting to INEC’s current assault on Fresh Democratic Party, said: “It is an unpalatable reality that learned Prof. Jega seems to have metabolised into a general factotum of the Jonathan administration. Those who are subservient to ineptitude and mediocrity soon declare themselves to be abject vassals of ignominy.”
The post Fresh Party exposes INEC over alleged false claims appeared first on The Sun News.
from http://ift.tt/I8U8zQ
Thanks for Reading The LATEST UPDATE:
Fresh Party exposes INEC over alleged false claimsSHARE WITH FRIENDS
