The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Abubakar Atiku on Wednesday suffered a major setback in his legal battle
to unseat Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s elected President.
This is as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal
struck out several paragraphs of the petition he relied upon to push for
Tinubu’s removal.
Also several exhibits, including witnesses’ statements he
tendered to establish his allegations of irregularities, malpractices against
the February 25 presidential election were rejected and dis-countenanced by the
Tribunal.
Delivering ruling in some objections argued by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, on behalf of Tinubu, Justice Moses Ugoh held that several parts of Atiku’s petition have no legs upon which they can stand and survive, hence, not competent.
Like the fate that befell his counterpart in the Labour
Party’s Peter Obi, the court said several facts fundermentally required to
support the petition were not provided by Atiku.
Among others, Atiku was said to have failed and neglected to
name places where ballot boxes were snatched, the ways and manners the BVAS
machine were manipulated and names of polling boots where alleged malpractices
took place.
The petitioner, who claimed to have polled majority of
lawful votes, was said to have failed to state in clear terms, the total lawful
votes he claimed to have scored.
The Court held that Atiku alleged that Tinubu did not score
majority of lawful votes but refused to make the perceived lawful votes known
in his petition to the Tribunal.
Similarly, the Tribunal said that the former Vice President
made grievous allegations against Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello and
Chairman of Olamaboro Local Government of Kogi, Friday Adejoh but neglected to
join them as respondents in the petition.
Justice Ugoh held that failure to join the Governor, who was
accused of electoral fraud, was fatal to the petition because the Governor was
denied opportunity to defend himself as required by law.
The Tribunal dismissed the the allegations of over voting
all over Nigeria by the petitioner, adding that such pleadings run foul of the
law because the specific places where the alleged over voting took place were
not mentioned.
Atiku’s petition was also faulted on the ground that it
introduced several facts and allegations in unlawful ways that caught the
respondents unaware, adding that the tactic employed was unfair and made him
clever by half.
Among the offending new facts said to have been wrongfully
introduced by Atiku were the allegations of criminal conviction, certificate
forgery, dual citizenship of Guinea made against Tinubu outside the mode of
filing petition.
Justice Stephen Jonah Adah who read another ruling on
objections against the petition expunged several documents tendered by Atiku on
the ground that the exhibits were made during the pendency of the petition.
Also the evidence of several key witnesses of Atiku were
expunged from the Court record having been made in manners not known to law.
The Tribunal held that the wrongful mode adopted by the
PDP’s presidential candidate in the construction of the petition made several
paragraphs of the petition liable for striking out for want of merit.
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Nigerian Judiciary is dead and gone!
ReplyDeleteNigeria judiciary is of world standard. You can't expect court to generate votes for your parties. Up judiciary. Up INEC. Up mahamud
ReplyDeleteThe best court judgement I have ever watched to say the truth even though I may not vote for tinubu again because of the hardship his policies brought that lead to people dying of hunger. Baba tinubu you are still the best among the candidates but take another bold step again to further reduce the cost of fuel may be inflation will reduce for people to survive. Don't listen to this ngalele he has no feelings for the poor at all. Infact the earlier you remove him the better
ReplyDelete