The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar, on Monday evening, stormed the tribunal to lodge a
petition against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had on February 27, declared
President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the
presidential election.
Under section 134 of the Electoral Act, 2010, any candidate that was
dissatisfied with the outcome of the presidential contest, was mandated to
approach the tribunal with a petition, not later than 21 days after the
result was announced, a deadline that will expire on Tuesday.
The tribunal is expected to deliver its judgment in writing within 180
days from the date the petition was filed. As at the time of filing this
report, 7:50pm, Atiku’s team of lawyers led by Mr. Chukwuma Nwachukwu Ume,
SAN, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN, are perfecting
the filing process at the Central Registry of the Presidential Election
Petition Tribunal, PEPT.
The tribunal will be conducting its proceedings at the Court of Appeal
headquarters in Abuja.
Though Atiku had yet to arrive at the tribunal where he is expected to
personally depose to an affidavit, however, some chieftains of the PDP,
including its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan and Alhaji Buba Galadima,
accompanied the lawyers to the tribunal. Addressing newsmen, National
Legal Adviser of the PDP, Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, revealed that Atiku would
be seeking two principal reliefs at the tribunal. He said the first relief
was for an order declaring him as the bona-fide winner of the 2019
presidential election. In the alternative, Atiku and the PDP, are urging
the tribunal to nullify the February 23 presidential election on the
premise that it was marred by irregularities.
“We asked that our candidate who won the election massively across the
country be declared the winner. “In the alternative, we also asked that
the election be set aside on the ground of irregularity which was apparent
across the country. “We have a pool of 20 SANs who are tested in election
petition matters and other senior lawyers who are also working with them.
So we are confident. “We have also lined up more than 400 witnesses that
are going to testify in this petition.
“Nigerians are at home with what happened on February 23, the sham they
called election. We are going to re-present those facts to Nigerians, we
are not going to manufacture facts”, he added. Similarly, a member of the
legal team, Chief Ozekhome, SAN, told journalists that the petitioners
encountered serious challenges in the hands of INEC which is said was
reluctant to grant them access to the electoral materials. “Our petition
is quite solid, very strong and unassailable. We believe that by the grace
of God, the original winner will regain his mandate”, Ozekhome added.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had on March 6, ordered INEC to
grant Atiku and PDP access to all the electoral materials that were used
for the presidential poll. The tribunal however declined to allow Atiku
and PDP to conduct forensic analysis on any of the electoral materials on
the premise that such request was outside the scope of the Electoral Act,
as amended. Justice Abdul Aboki who delivered the lead ruling of the
tribunal, held that Atiku’s request for experts to be permitted to conduct
forensic audit on the materials, could not be regarded as “inspection”
that was allowed in section 151 of the Electoral Act.
He held that a decided case-law in Hope Uzodinma Vs Osita Izunaso, which
Atiku and the PDP relied upon to make the application, wherein a tribunal
ordered INEC to allow the petitioner to scan and conduct forensic audit on
all the election materials, had since been set-aside by the Court of
Appeal. Nevertheless, the tribunal directed INEC to allow the Applicants
access to the ballot papers and voters register. Specifically, Atiku and
his party, told the tribunal that the essence of the request was to
establish that the presidential election was fraught with manifest
irregularities they said included multiple thumbprinting of ballot papers.
They indicated their determination to engage forensic experts to scritinze
all materials that INEC deployed for the election.
In a counter-move, President Buhari and the APC, on March 14, also
approached the tribunal and secured an order for INEC to equally grant
them access to all the electoral materials. The Tribunal, in two separate
rulings, ordered the electoral body to forthwith, make available to
President Buhari and the APC, both used and unused ballot papers it
deployed across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital
Territory, for the purpose of the presidential poll. Among other documents
the tribunal granted the Applicants leave to inspect included all the
voters registers. It held that the Applicants should also be allowed to
obtain Certified True Copies of all the documents that were used at the
polling units, wards, local governments and state levels.
The tribunal said it was inclined to grant the request pursuant to section
6(6) (a) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, section 137(2) and 151(1) and (2)
of the Electoral Act and 47(1) of the Third Schedule to Electoral Act.
President Buhari and the APC had through their lawyers, Adelani Ajibade
and Thomas Ojo, prayed the tribunal to order INEC to release the materials
to enable them to prepare their defence to a petition the presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
intends to lodge against the outcome of the presidential poll.
Buhari told the panel that Atiku had expressed his intention to go to
court to challenge his declaration as winner of the presidential contest.
He said he would need some of the electoral materials currently in INEC’s
custody, to be able to prove that he legitimately secured the highest
number of valid votes ahead of Atiku who came second at the election.
President Buhari noted that the tribunal had also granted a similar
request in favour of Atiku and the PDP. Though the inspection request was
allowed, the tribunal however declined to order INEC to grant the
Applicants access to the Smart Card Reader Machines that were used for the
presidential election. “I am of the view that the prayers sought, ought to
be granted”, Justice Aboki held, stressing that the Applicants or their
representatives should be granted access to the polling documents.
“The 1st Respondent (INEC) is hereby ordered to forthwith, allow the
Applicant or his representatives to inspect all the polling documents used
in the just concluded presidential election to allow the Applicant to
defend any petition that may arise from his declaration as winner of the
February 23 presidential election”, the tribunal held. It equally granted
the Applicants the leave to seek for such reliefs before the pre-hearing
session of any petition that may be lodged against the outcome of the
presidential election.