{"id":70399,"date":"2019-11-15T15:31:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T14:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=70399"},"modified":"2019-11-15T15:31:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T14:31:56","slug":"supreme-court-says-pdp-failed-to-prove-case-with-250000-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/supreme-court-says-pdp-failed-to-prove-case-with-250000-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Says PDP Failed To Prove Case With 250,000 Witnesses\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Supreme Court on Friday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, should have presented 250, 000 witnesses before the 2019 election tribunal to prove its case.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe appellant cannot just call witnesses,\u201d Justice John Okoro who joined two other panellists to explain the court\u2019s decision said \u201cHe has to call witnesses who are eyewitnesses and he may have to call 250, 000 witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court said that PDP failed to prove its main allegations against the re-election of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari and that he was eminently qualified to participate in the election.<\/p>\n

The court said the first allegation bothered on an alleged non-compliance to the Electoral Act, while the second issue related to the question of whether or not Buhari qualified to take part in the election.<\/p>\n

Regarding the allegations of non-compliance, the court said the PDP had a responsibility, not only to provide witnesses but to do so sufficiently to support its allegations.<\/p>\n

On Buhari\u2019s educational qualifications, Justice Okoro stated that the issue was a constitutional matter and that Section 131 (d) of the constitution only requires that a candidate vying for the position of president should be \u201ceducated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okoro read through Section 318 of the Constitution to further explain the meaning of \u201cschool certificate or its equivalent\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis include: secondary School Certificate or its equivalent, or Grade II Teacher\u2019s Certificate, the City and Guilds Certificate, education up to Secondary School Certificate level, Primary Six School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent and -service in the public or private sector in the Federation in any capacity acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for a minimum of ten years,\u201d Justice Okoro said.<\/p>\n

Atiku and the PDP challenged the election result which Independent National Electoral Commission\u00a0(INEC) declared Buhari winner<\/a>at the tribunal but was dismissed.<\/p>\n

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu said Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku, who polled 11,262,978 votes.<\/p>\n

However, Atiku and the PDP claimed the election was\u00a0\u2018massively\u2019 rigged<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atiku and the PDP also claimed that\u00a0Buhari was not academically qualified<\/a>\u00a0to contest a presidential election in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The opposition party and its candidate also petitioned the tribunal to nullify Buhari\u2019s election on grounds of alleged over-voting and voter intimidation by security agents during the polls. But was dismissed by the tribunal.<\/p>\n

Unsatisfied with the tribunal judgement, Atiku and PDP approached the\u00a0Supreme Court which also dismissed<\/a>\u00a0their petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have examined all the briefs and the exhibits for over two weeks and we agree that there is no merit in this appeal,\u201d Chief Justice, Tanko Muhammad said at the judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appeal is dismissed,\u201d he concluded, in a unanimous decision with six court justices.<\/p>\n

Hours after the judgment was delivered,\u00a0Atiku described it as a \u201cchallenge\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that Nigeria must survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I believe that only God is infallible everywhere, and only Nigerians are infallible in our democracy, I must accept that the judicial route I chose to take, as a Democrat, has come to a conclusion,\u201d Atiku Abubakar wrote on Twitter on October 30.<\/p>\n

Atiku, former Nigerian vice president, tacitly maintained his claim to victory and that the Supreme Court judgment was compromised, saying that the country\u2019s judiciary is not free.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a democracy, you need a strong judiciary, a free press and an impartial electoral umpire. Nigeria has none of those three elements as at today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court on Friday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, should have presented 250, 000 witnesses before the 2019 election tribunal to prove…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court Says PDP Failed To Prove Case With 250,000 Witnesses\u00a0 - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/supreme-court-says-pdp-failed-to-prove-case-with-250000-witnesses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Says PDP Failed To Prove Case With 250,000 Witnesses\u00a0 - 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