ATTEMPT by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14 election in Edo State, Major-General Charles Airhiavbere (retd), to present more witnesses to back his claims that the election was rigged failed on Thursday, as the Benin division of the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal.
The court also dismissed his appeal to direct the lower tribunal to admit some paragraphs in his reply to the respondent, but directed that only paragraphs six and seven be admitted on merit.
Reading the ruling on the admission of more witnesses, Justice T. S. Yakubu said the appellant’s position that the lower tribunal did not use its discretionary powers in his favour was also wrong, as he said “the discretion is the right of the judge conferred by law,” adding that “the exercise of the court discretion depends on peculiar facts and circumstances of that particular case. The appellant has the onerous duty to place cogent and sufficient materials before the tribunal to persuade it to exercise its discretion in his favour.”
Yakubu further said that the case of Yar’Adua vs Abubakar, which the appellant cited, was not similar to the case Airhiavbere brought before the appellate court.
“I therefore totally agree with the lower tribunal. That authority could not have been a talisman for the appellant; it added no prosperity to his application. Instead, it added a great deal of poverty to it.
“I must say that while the party failed to discharge the burden placed upon him, which led to a court not discharging its discretion to his favour, the party cannot turn round and blame the court by crying that it has been denied fair hearing of his application,” Justice Yakubu said, adding that the lower court did rightly and commendably
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