According to him, the attacks were allegedly carried out to stop the hearing and ruling on a petition filed by Ajaka against the outcome of the election.
Otumba Olumofin Okutepa (SAN), counsel for the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the November 11 Governorship Election in Kogi State, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, has raised an alarm over alleged attacks on members of the Kogi State Education Petition Tribunal.
According to him, the attacks were allegedly carried out to stop the hearing and ruling on a petition filed by Ajaka against the outcome of the election.
Okutepa, who raised the alarm in a statement he signed and made available to journalists said that the Secretary of the Election Petition Tribunal was attacked at gunpoint by hired political thugs in Lokoja on Monday.
The lawyer said, “At the time the attacks occurred, the Secretary was with copies of an election petition filed on the 2/12/2023 by the legal team of Alhaji Murtala Yakubu and Social Democratic Party, SDP.”
Okutepa further said, “The said petition was filed on 2/12/2023. The petition is No: EPT/KG/Gov/03/2023. The said petition was duly received and stamped on the 2/12/2023 and certified by Mr U. D. Mike On the said date.”
He stressed that “by the provisions of Section 285(5) of the 1999, election petitions are to be filed within 21 days after the date of the declaration of the result of the election”.
“The result of the Kogi State Governorship Election was declared on 12/11/2023. This petition was filed within time allowed by the constitution. The petition submitted was in three volumes. They are numbered volumes 1, 2 and 3,” he said.
He said, “Despite the fact that the petition was filed within time and duly paid for, and completed copies were submitted and security deposit paid, some very uninformed and political miscreants who can accept to do any dirty job just for peanuts went to town in the name of an amorphous NGO, that claimed to be non-partisan and non-political, to misinformed the public that SDP and its candidate did not file the petition within time.
“They made many incoherent and unfounded unintelligent allegations in the name of democracy and misconducted themselves professionally and then exhibited crass knowledge of law to satisfy their paid masters.
“As a legal practitioner in the legal team that prepared and filed the petition, I did not see any sense in the sponsored press statement issued by these learned gentlemen if indeed they are lawyers. They should have known better.
“My main worry here is the desperations being exhibited by some politicians in Kogi State who are afraid of allowing the conduct of the so-called election of 11/11/2023 to be judicially examined.
“These anti-democratic forces and agents of darkness have done everything since after that election to stop the examinations of the conduct of the said election.”
Okutepa lamented that “Kogi State has become so lawless under Yahaya Bello as Governor. There is complete failure of governance in the State.
“The attacks against the Secretary of the Tribunal and subsequent snatching of the petition filed by the legal team of Murtala Yakubu and SDP by agents of darkness in Kogi State and by those working for those who rigged their ways into the office is not only unfortunate but it constitutes an attack against the judiciary.
“It is a direct interference with the judicial process. I hope the Nigerian government will view this unfortunate incident seriously and ensure that sanity is restored in Kogi State. There is political insanity in Kogi State.
“There is political miasma in Kogi State. There is total disdain for the judiciary and judicial institution by Kogi State and the agents of the state.
“How long will the President of Nigeria keep quiet and look the other way when all is not well in Kogi State? It is shameful that those who rigged the election in Kogi State on 11/11/2023 are not allowing the conduct of the said election to be examined.
“It is sad. Given what is going on in Kogi State the lives of lawyers and judges handling this petition are not safe.”
He said that President Bola Tinubu-led government must urgently do something to prevent the killing of lawyers and judges, stressing that the government must protect all the people who have to handle the petitions in the state.
He added, “The Nigerian Bar Association must speak and act now. It is becoming too difficult to practice law in Nigeria. Those who rigged the election are desperate and they are doing everything to scuttle the hearing and determination of the petition.
“The judiciary must ensure that it takes judicial notice of the rascality going on in the state. There must be an end to these state-sponsored attacks.
“Nigerians are watching the Federal Government of Nigeria. Kogi State must be monitored strictly to avoid further anarchy.
“People are being pushed to the wall. There is a limit to human endurance. Kogi must not be allowed to be on fire and further. Enough is enough.”