By THOMPSON YAMPUT

The Kogi Off-Cycle Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, constituted by President of the Court of Appeal (COA), Justice Monica Bolna’an-Dongban, is set to begin sitting on Saturday, an official has disclosed.

Mr David Umar-Mike, Secretary of the tribunal, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Thursday.

The Nov. 11 election saw Alhaji Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerge as winner with 446,237 votes while his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) garnered 259,052 votes.

The tribunal secretary said: “By God’s grace, the tribunal will be sitting this Saturday, Nov. 25. We will take exparte motions.

“This is because all we have at hand right now are the exparte motions that will be taken on that Saturday.

“But the work proper may take few more days because counsels will have to go and start looking for documents at Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the rest of them before they file their various petitions,” he stated.

He said that the constitution of the election tribunal was in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act (as amended).

According to him, the registry of the tribunal has since opened for business at the state High Court of Justice complex, Lokoja. (NAN)