Before the Bayelsa State Election Petition Tribunal, which started meeting in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Thursday, candidates in the recently completed elections in Bayelsa State have submitted 31 petitions.
In her inaugural statement to legally commence the tribunal hearings, Justice O. Fagbemi, the chairman, revealed this.
In order to avoid wasting the court’s time with pointless applications and preliminary objections, Justice Fagbemi pleaded with the parties to collaborate in order to secure prompt justice because the tribunal was time-limited.
She said: “We solicit your support and cooperation in administering justice to all manner of people via petition filed before the tribunal. As it is described, election petitions before the tribunal are time bound and by their nature peculiar from other proceedings.
“We undertake to abide by our oath of office and mandate in dispensing justice with the help of God Almighty.
“We seize this opportunity to admonish counsels and litigants to desist from seeking unnecessary incessant adjournments and filing of frivolous applications and preliminary objections which is time wasting, purely an academic exercise, an exercise in futility aimed at perverting the course of justice.”