PUNCH
Ebonyi youth group, operating under the auspices of Unwuekunenyi United Youths Forum, on Thursday, kicked against the relocation of the Election Petition Tribunal from Abakaliki, the state capital, to Abuja.
The president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, had on Wednesday, announced the office of the Ebonyi Elections Petition Tribunal, Abakaliki, had been shut down.
She had directed that the tribunal be relocated to Abuja immediately.
According to her, all processes relating to matters before the Tribunal will continue in Abuja.
But the Ebonyi youth group at a press conference in Abakaliki, on Thursday, protested against the directive of the president of the Appeal Court, citing hardship on the people and lack of funds to mobilise both human and material resources to the nation’s capital during the sitting of the Tribunal.
The national president of the group, Prince Uche Ega, said “We are Unwuekunenyi United Youths Forum; the apex youth organisation of Unwuekunenyi extraction in Ebonyi State. We span over 80 per cent of the population and are spread across 10 out of the 13 LGAs of the state. We freely elect to state as follows:
“We frown at the decision to relocate the Ebonyi State Election Petition Tribunal at the instance of the PDP gubernatorial candidate for the March 18, 2023 election.
“That going by the precedent that propped/threw up the PDP candidate, we are worried that there is bias of prejudice, in granting one party the preference of choosing a venue outside the Ebonyi State capital, Abakaliki.
