Spread the love

Nigeria’s former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has officially filed an appeal at the Supreme Court over the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal of September 11, which nullified his petitions in their entirely.

Atiku’s legal team filed the appeal two days to the deadline for such to be filed at the Supreme Court. The deadline is Wednesday.

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had in its final verdict on the petitions by Atiku and the PDP announced the dismissal of the petitions in their entirety.

Indications that the verdict was heading towards this conclusion were clear as the Tribunal picked on grounds after grounds of the petition, clinically knocking them off, one after the other, especially the major pillars: the existence of an INEC server and President Muhammadu Buhari’s eligibility to stand for election.

The INEC server did not exist and Buhari was eminently qualified, educationally, to stand for election, the Tribunal found.

Justice Garba Lawal Mohammed who read the judgment said the petitioners failed to prove any of the grounds canvassed as provided by the law. Their failure to do so, was detrimental to their case and made the petitions bound to fail.

He said the witnesses brought to court were also unable to prove allegations of electoral malpractice or violence at the polling units. He said the polling agents that could do so were not called to give evidence.

The judgment hinged on five issues raised by the petitioners which was whether Buhari was qualified to contest the election.

The petitioners also asked the tribunal to decide whether the alleged false information by the president on his educational qualification amounted to perjury.

They further invited the tribunal to decide whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not transmit the results of the election electronically via its central server.

The petitioners asked the court to decide whether the respondents did not benefit from widespread rigging, over voting, violence intimidation perpetrated by their agents and security forces deployed to oversee the conduct of the election.

Lastly, the petitioners urged the tribunal to hold that the president did not secure majority lawful votes.

Garba said the petitioners were unable to satisfactorily provide evidence to substantially prove the allegations contained in the issues canvassed.

“The tribunal is left without options to grant any of the prayers because we are not magicians to decipher exactly what to do in the circumstance other than to dismiss the petition,’’ he said.

On the alleged non-qualification of the president to contest the election, Garba said Buhari was duly screened and certified to contest the election by INEC as he met the requirement and guidelines set by the electoral body.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for another informative blog. Where else could I get that type of info written in such an ideal way? I have a project that I’m just now working on, and I’ve been on the look out for such info.

  2. This is very interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your wonderful post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!

  3. Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Kudos

  4. I wish to show my appreciation for your generosity for persons that actually need help on in this niche. Your special dedication to passing the solution throughout ended up being rather significant and have continually encouraged somebody much like me to attain their dreams. Your personal warm and helpful useful information indicates a great deal a person like me and even more to my peers. Best wishes; from each one of us.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here